Competition Up In New Car!

The first four races of 2008 were a big test for the “new car” that will be used in all 36 races (22 tracks) this NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

The car never raced any of this season’s host tracks – Daytona, California, Las Vegas and Atlanta – in its rollout season of 2007. The numbers show a boost in competition in the first four races this year as compared to last season.

There were 20 more lead changes at this point this season at the start/finish line than last year. In terms of Green Flag Passes for the Lead (a Loop Data statistic that tallies the amount of passes for the lead that occur around the entire track), there were 22 more this season than at this point in 2007.

This Sunday, the new car will race at Bristol Motor Speedway for a third time – and figure the competition to be stout once again. Last August, there was a huge jump in passing in the second race on the newly-repaved track – 2,147 in August compared to 991 in March.

As far as who will take the checkered on Sunday, figure on a driver with Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup experience – the last 16 Bristol winners have made at least one Chase.

But then again, it doesn’t have to be a proven winner. Both Kurt Busch (March 2002) and Elliott Sadler (March 2001) earned their first career wins at tricky Bristol. (But it can’t be both. No driver without a win has made a Chase. Clint Bowyer crossed his name of that list with his September win at New Hampshire.)