ESPN Analyst and NASCAR Champion Rusty Wallace on Racing at Bristol Motor Speedway

Wallace won nine times in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup competition at Bristol and is tied with Dale Earnhardt and Cale Yarborough for second in all-time wins at the track.

1) What made you such a successful driver at Bristol, and how special is the track to your career?

“Bristol is my favorite racetrack. I got my first victory there in 1986, and my 50th victory there was a milestone for me. I consider it almost my home track because it is such a fun place for me with nine victories and a host of others that I should have won but didn’t. I think I did so well there because I grew up on short tracks and always loved short-track racing. After I ran there many times, it became really evident to me what to do to get a pass and understand how to maneuver the car. It’s the most wildly popular short track, and I still get a kick out of going to Bristol.”

2) How do you think the track’s new surface at Bristol will affect racing and what viewers will see this weekend on ESPN?

“I drove the track in a pace car a few weeks back and I was surprised by how smooth it was. Before, it was a struggle to run side-by-side at Bristol, but now you can do it easily. Another racing division ran a race at Bristol not long ago and at times they were running three-wide. It’s going to be a great race for ESPN and one of the most exciting that fans are going to see. Repaving was, without a doubt, a positive thing.

“I was going to run in (son) Steven’s car in a practice session three weeks ago, but I didn’t. Then I heard there is another practice this Thursday just for Busch Series drivers and I started to get excited. If I get to the track and Steven’s struggling, I might want to make some laps in the car myself.”

3) Does night racing at Bristol present many different challenges for drivers and teams than daylight races?

“For some reason at night, whether it’s a big track or short track, it’s more dramatic. At Bristol, you’ve got all of the colors of the cars, fire coming out of the tailpipes and it’s unbelievably dramatic. You’ve got more bumping and banging and crashing, all the fans have cameras flashing and when the sun goes down, all heck breaks loose.

“The setup and strategy of racing at Bristol Motor Speedway at night and during the day are very much the same. It’s a concrete track, which means that it’s much more consistent and not nearly as sensitive to heat and cold as asphalt. That’s what makes the setups very similar.”

NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series Live in Prime Time on ESPN at Bristol Motor Speedway at 7 p.m. ET Saturday; ESPN2 Will Have Live Coverage of Friday night’s NASCAR Busch Series race at 7:30 p.m. ET

Drivers and teams will make their annual visit to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for 500 laps of night racing in one of the most popular events on the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series schedule. ESPN will have live coverage from the half-mile concrete oval beginning at 7 p.m. ET Saturday, Aug. 25, with the pre-race NASCAR Countdown program. The race telecast will be presented by Pennzoil. On Friday night, ESPN2 continues its season-long coverage of the NASCAR Busch Series with live, prime-time coverage from Bristol Motor Speedway. The telecast begins at 7:30 p.m. ET with NASCAR Countdown.

Dr. Jerry Punch will anchor the coverage from MIS, with analysis by 1989 NASCAR Cup champion Rusty Wallace and two-time champion crew chief Andy Petree. Pit reporters will be Allen Bestwick, Dave Burns, Jamie Little and Mike Massaro, while Tim Brewer will report from the ESPN DISH Tech Center. ESPN’s Suzy Kolber will host NASCAR Countdown, joined by analyst Brad Daugherty, a former winning team owner in NASCAR’s Busch and Truck series, in the ESPN Pit Studio.

About NASCAR on ESPN:

ESPN and ESPN on ABC have comprehensive, multi-platform coverage featuring telecasts of the final 17 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup races including the 10-race “Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup” championship on ESPN on ABC. Additionally, ESPN2 is the home of the NASCAR Busch Series all season. For the first time in the history of televised motorsports, all programming is produced totally in High Definition. ESPN’s comprehensive, multimedia NASCAR coverage extends to ESPN.com, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Deportes Radio, SportsCenter, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPNRadio, ESPN360.com and ESPN International, among other ESPN platforms. ESPN aired 262 NASCAR Cup Races over a 20-year period starting in 1981. The network's award-winning, live flag-to-flag coverage on ESPN was honored with 17 Sports Emmy Awards, as well as many industry honors. It is widely credited for helping to popularize the sport nationwide. NASCAR races have appeared on ABC for decades, beginning with broadcasts on the award-winning Wide World of Sports program in the 1960s.

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