BRISTOL, Tenn. — NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers spent Friday trying to figure out the best way to manage Bristol.
Track officials applied a treatment to the track's lower lane in an effort to increase tire grip — and perhaps dramatically change the way the race is run. Or maybe not.
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It all comes to fruition Saturday night. Drivers and teams must adjust to another application of resin, announced late Friday, to the lower groove in all four corners.
Green flag is expected to fall about 8:18 p.m. ET. Starting lineup : Carl Edwards begins in pole position.
Drivers spent Friday's Sprint Cup practice sessions figuring out the track. Will they race mostly in the bottom groove, nosing cars out of their path in an effort to gain position? Or will they work the outer groove once more, creating easier passing at the high-banked half-mile track?
Track re-applied rosin-first 18” above the apron in turns 1-2 and turns 3-4 overnight-Identical to what we did prior to @NASCAR_XFINITY
— Steve O'Donnell (@odsteve) August 20, 2016
If drivers find themselves battling for position in a higher-speed low groove, this could be a race that harkens to the Bristol showdowns of the past. If they can race in either line, they'll face less of a recipe for disaster.
Count Edwards among those looking forward to the challenge.
Edwards' four wins at Bristol include this year's April race. He has pole position for Saturday night's Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race.
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As to where, exactly, drivers will find themselves racing, Edwards said after the opening practice that he was as mystified as anyone. He and the others were moving around on the track, trying to find what worked best.
Things weren't that cleared up after qualifying either. Drivers planned to watch Friday night's Xfinity race and then consider what to do on Saturday night.
"Stay tuned — it's going to be crazy," Edwards said after qualifying. "We'll see what happens with the Xfinity cars and then we'll just respond, you know? We'll just do whatever we have to do."
Racing at Bristol (Getty Images)
Drivers expect conditions to change over the course of the race.
"It's going to be a mix," Denny Hamlin said when asked about which lane to use after qualifying on the front row. "The top will definitely come in. It's just a matter of whether it's going to be quicker than the bottom. I think the bottom wears out tires and so you've got to be aware of that, so it's going to be a fun race. I think it will at least add something we haven't seen here in a while."
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Edwards said his crew chief, Dave Rogers, pointed out that it's not like all 40 drivers are just going to stay in line in the race. Someone is going to figure things out.
He's excited by the prospect.
Edwards said racing at Bristol was "really fun" the first few times he was there. He's not certain either why the bottom is faster, or whether the top will come in more for the race.
Mainly, though, Edwards sounds enthusiastic about what he might face in this race.
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He's open to the challenges it can bring — and seems to relish the fact that the race will be different, that it will ask new things of the drivers and that everyone will be trying to puzzle out exactly what works. While they are on the track and racing.
"It makes it more interesting," he said of the changes. "The problem-solving of this sport and what we do, that's really a lot of the fun. If they put jumps and fiery rings out there, it would be a blast to try to navigate it. For me, I enjoy it. Part of the excitement of this job and this sport is going to a new place or running a different package or a track that makes a change. I think it's good, it mixes it up and that's what this is about is being able to problem solve and I think it's good."
Biggest caution of the night at #XFINITYSeries as @JoeGibbsRacing drivers get tangled up. pic.twitter.com/tdrC67e0ji
— XFINITY Racing (@XFINITYRacing) August 20, 2016
Kyle Larson said that after the opening practice, it appeared the bottom groove had more speed than the top — at least for the first 10 laps. After that, the difference closed up. He admitted that he prefers to run in the top line. He got experience with the track, though, as one of the Sprint Cup drivers competing in Friday's Xfinity race.
The drivers said that the top lane came in over the course of the race, while the bottom still had grip. Larson agreed.
"The bottom, middle and top were pretty equal there," he said on NBC of the closing laps of that race. "The top was a little bit better for long runs, but once you got to the traffic you could kind of make ground down up there … I think it's going to be a good Cup race."