Johnny Benson

After seven years of research and development NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow debuts in Sunday’s Nextel Cup race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, and figure on Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. as the best bets to get to Victory Lane.

There are several aims for the Car of Tomorrow. It is expected to increase driver safety, improve competition in races, and allow teams to manage their costs more efficiently, perhaps even reducing them.

Working in their favor
Johnson, Gordon, and Busch are with Hendrick Motorsports which I expect to have the upper hand at Bristol given the amount of preparation and effort the organization has put into adapting to the Car of Tomorrow.

Johnson, who is fourth in points, will be seeking his third straight win hoping to add a Bristol trophy to those he won at Atlanta and Las Vegas the last two weeks.

Johnson has never won at Bristol, his best finish being third in August of 2004. Overall in 10 Cup starts at the Tennessee track, the defending Cup champion has two top-fives and six top-10s.

The El Cajon Calif. native said Hendrick Motorsports has done a phenomenal job in getting ready for Bristol, and that testing with the Car of Tomorrow at the short track produced one of the best tests ever for Johnson at this venue.

Gordon, who is second in points, has five wins at Bristol, tying him with Kurt Busch for the most among current drivers. In addition to his victories, the four-time Cup champion has collected four poles, 11 top-fives and 17 top-10's in 28 Bristol starts.

Gordon has been critical of the Car of Tomorrow in the past, but he says he's going into Sunday's race with a positive attitude.

Kyle Busch had nothing to rave about in his rookie season of 2005 at Bristol, but last year at this oval he posted a pair of top-10 efforts, crossing the checkers eighth in March and second in August.

Kyle says with the Car of Tomorrow he expects that the typical racing at Bristol will be a thing of the past. It'll be tough he says, and he admits he doesn't know what to expect. And he's not alone with that belief.

Junior drives for Dale Earnhardt Inc., and two of DEI's crew chiefs Tony Eury Jr., who is with Dale, and Tony Eury Sr., who is with Paul Menard, have a great sense for what their cars need at the world's fastest half mile.

They're hoping to transfer that over to the Car of Tomorrow.

Junior runs strong at Bristol, and the high-banked, half-mile oval suits him very well. In his 14 Cup starts in the Volunteer State, he has one win, five top-fives and seven top-10s.

Other drivers to watch
Kurt Busch has won five of the last 10 Cup races at Bristol, including this event last year. Despite a less-than-stellar start to the season, Kurt should figure big in deciding Sunday's winner.

Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton of Richard Childress Racing are both off to solid starts this season. Burton's third in points, and Harvick is seventh.

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Harvick and Burton should run in the top 10 on Sunday. Burton's never won in 26 Bristol races, but he does have six top-fives, and 10 top-10s.

Harvick won this race in 2005, and to go along with that victory he has six top-fives and eight top-10s in 12 Bristol starts.

The Bakersfield Calif. native meets the challenge of this tricky short track. In the two Bristol races last season, Harvick made 61 quality passes, ranking him third in that category.

Matt Kenseth's star is burning bright at Bristol where in his last 10 races he has two wins, seven top-fives, and nine top-10s. In his last four races at this oval, he has led for 706 laps -- that's more than the next two drivers combined.

Keep a close eye on teammates Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin, both of whom are in the top 10 in points. After finishing second last week in Atlanta, Stewart climbed seven spots in the standings to sixth. Hamlin is eighth.

Stewart has a win, two poles, four top-fives, and five top-10s in the 16 times he's taken the green flag at this track. "Smoke" as he is nicknamed is so far not a fan of the Car of Tomorrow, but he says that will have no impact on his racing on Sunday.

Hamlin, who placed sixth and 14th at Bristol last year, wasn't thrown by the Car of Tomorrow in testing it at this short track in February. In fact, it was just the opposite as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver posted the top time in two of the three sessions.

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