Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - While "March Madness" begins in college
basketball this week, NASCAR's two weeks of short-track "madness" starts in
Upper East Tennessee as the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series take to the high
banks of Bristol Motor Speedway.
ood City 250 for his second career Nationwide victory.
"Winning at Bristol was a pretty cool deal," he said. "I have always loved the
track and been able to run well there too. We started near the back last fall,
because I had a little trouble in qualifying, but my car was just so good that
it really didn't matter. The crew did an awesome job of getting me spots on
pit road. Everything was just in sync. We are bringing back that same car with
GoDaddy.com on the hood, and I'm hopeful for the same result this time."
His first series win came in June at Nashville.
Keselowski finished third in the championship standings in his first full
season driving the No.88 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports
last year.
Kevin Harvick is a four-time Nationwide race winner at Bristol. Harvick is
second in career wins in the series with 32, but has not scored a victory
since November 2007 at Texas. His last Bristol victory came in 2004 for
Richard Childress Racing.
In addition to his Sprint Cup driving duties for RCR, Harvick is a
driver/owner in Nationwide competition. He has yet to win in his own car, but
Bristol could be the place where he does it.
"You have to go to Bristol and enjoy it, but know that the outcome could be
the opposite of what you want it to be," Harvick said.
Harvick scored a weekend sweep at Bristol in April 2005.
Clint Bowyer won last year's spring race at Bristol. The scheduled 300-lap
race was halted after 171 laps for heavy rain. Bowyer grabbed the lead on lap
106, and then held a half-second advantage over Kasey Kahne before the final
caution flag waved. Kahne finished second, followed by David Reutimann,
Keselowski and Mike Bliss.
Bowyer's win at Bristol was his only victory during his 2008 Nationwide
championship campaign.