Bristol Motor Speedway has been a fixture on the NASCAR Racing schedule since 1961. It is known as the world’s fastest half mile, and many NASCAR fans also refer to it as Thunder Valley, since there are 43 cars on a half mile track, surrounded by 160,000 seats. It holds two races every year for the NASCAR Cup series. The August race is run at night, and is considered one of the "Crown Jewels" of the Cup series season. Every NASCAR driver wants a win at Bristol on the racing resume, because it is a throw back track. It features racing from NASCAR’s roots, when weekly NASCAR races were run on short track all over the South East. http://www.bristolmotorspeedway.com/track_info/history/http://www.nascarcomplete.comhttp://www.diddit.com/list-lvfxvb/nascar-race-tracks/

The story goes a couple of friends take in a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960, and then decide to build a race track in Northern [[Tennessee. After mulling over several sites, the site in Bristol is selected. The area now known as Thunder Valley was once a Dairy Farm. The track opened in 1961 and Jack Smith won the first race there in a 1961 Pontiac. Smith earned $14,885 for winning that race. By ways of comparison Kyle Busch won the race there in August of 2009 and took home just over 5.5 million dollar in prize money.

This used to be a cement race track with banking in the turns of 36 degrees, which is steeper baking than the turns at Daytona International Speedway. It was then known as a one groove race track; however in 2007 the track was resurfaced in Asphalt and now features a variable banking system that allows race cars to race side by side.

A quick look at the Bristol Motor Speedway Record Book:

• Sprint Cup series Qualifying Record- 128.070 mph, Ryan Newman, 2003
• Nationwide Series Qualifying Record- 126.495 mph, David Green, 2003
• Most Bristol Wins (Driver) - Darrell Waltrip 12 (7 consecutive)
• Most Bristol Wins (Owner) - Junior Johnson 21 (8 consecutive)
• Most Bristol Wins (Manufacturer) – Chevrolet 37http://racing-reference.info/tracks?id=141><ref>http://www.nascar.com/races/tracks/bms/http://www.bristolmotorspeedway.com/track_info/record_book/http://www.bristolmotorspeedway.com/track_info/history/