FYI WIRZ: NASCAR's Top Shakers talk Bristol before and after flags

The Jeff Byrd 500 presented by Food City at Bristol Motor Speedway, race four of 36 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on the popular 0.533 Mile oval, ended Sunday after 10 cautions and plenty of short-track excitement for the packed and stacked stands.  

Kyle Busch dominated Bristol this weekend as he did in 2011 when he won all three NASCAR top series. His Nationwide and Sprint Cup performances brought his Bristol wins to a wildly impressive five in a row. 

Busch was first to the checkered flag followed by Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Paul Menard. 

Under the new point system, all top five finishers held or improved their spots in the point standings.  Busch moved eight places to occupy the sixth position and only Matt Kenseth missed the top 12 with his three-spot advance to the 13th position.

This week’s top movers and shakers share their thoughts before and after race. Their words are often descriptive and sometimes predictive.   

FYI WIRZ is the swift presentation of pertinent motorsports topics by Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com.  Quotes derived from team and sanction press releases.

Kyle Busch [No. 18 Toyota] Finished first.

Before the green flag:
“We grew up at the (Las Vegas Motor Speedway) Bullring and stuff like that. Maybe not as banked as Bristol is, but I love going and racing at Winchester (Ind.), Slinger (Wisc.), and Salem (Ind.),” Busch said. “Those are all really high-banked racetracks, a half-mile in distance or a quarter. They’re really fun to race around and you kind of get a great feel for racing in a bowl.

“Bristol Motor Speedway is one of the best racetracks on the circuit. All the fans love it because of the excitement, the run-ins, and the close-quarter action with all the cars being packed on top of one another at a half-mile racetrack with us 43 lunatics running around in a tight circle.”

After the checkered flag:
“It was a lot harder today, that’s for sure,” Busch said. “Carl (Edwards) kept me honest there.  I was making a couple mistakes, but nothing we couldn’t rebound from. 

“Our guys on that last pit stop won this race coming out of the pits first.  I don’t know if I could have gotten by Carl (Edwards) -- Carl was good. 

“It’s an awesome opportunity to come to Bristol and win in front of these fans -- I love it.  It’s a lot of fun and especially five in a row.  This is cool.  It was a grueling day today.  I didn’t feel my best, but we put it all together there when it mattered most.”

Carl Edwards [No. 99 Ford] Finished second.

Before the green flag:
“This place presents a lot of challenges to a driver with this new surface,” Edwards said. “It looked like when they changed it like, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be easier to pass,’ and it would be easier to race because there won’t be just one groove, but it’s the opposite.  It’s become much more difficult to pass. This race track you never know what is going to happen, and who is going to rise to the top.”

After the checkered flag:
“It was exciting,” Edwards said. “I thought I could get to him at the end and rough him up a little bit and maybe get by him, but his car took off.  Kyle did a good job.  Our team did a good job.  We’ve got to thank all the fans and we appreciate them coming out and supporting us.”

Jimmie Johnson [No.48 Chevy] Finished third.

Before the green flag:
“Looking forward to going back,” Johnson said. “We're sitting decent in the points, but a good run at Bristol would move us in the right direction in the points. Look forward to going back.

“The short track stuff—Martinsville, Bristol—it doesn't change. Guys joke around that their Bristol setups that they're running today is what they ran in the 90s with the old, old car.” 

After the checkered flag:
“We were pretty equal on pace,” Johnson said. “Whoever had clean air was going to be in control. We just didn't get off pit road in front of everybody. Great stops all day long, just a little off there at end.

“Kyle knows how to control the starts, he knows how to take advantage of a clean race track, restarts well. He really had control from that point on and it was the rest of us racing for second, third and fourth."

Matt Kenseth [No. 17 Ford] Finished fourth.

Before the green flag:
“Being a concrete, high-banked track that is so small, really makes Bristol stand out from other tracks on the circuit. Racing at Bristol feels like the seats are on top of you so it’s just a place with a really great atmosphere to race.”

After the checkered flag:
“We had a lot of fun out there racing today and got lucky and got the right lane on the restarts a few times,” Kenseth said. “We were able to make up some positions.  It took all day, but we finally were able to make some adjustments. It was a struggle all day.  I’m thrilled with our finish.”

Paul Menard [No. 27 Chevy] Finished fifth.

Before the green flag:
“The average speed for both Bristol and Phoenix is pretty similar, but at Bristol you have a lot more load with the banking,” Menard said. “It’s a fun race track. Since they repaved it, you can drive just about anywhere that you want on the track which makes racing there a lot of fun.  You just have to be careful because things can get hairy pretty quick there. You can kind of pick and choose where you want to be while you race, but when trouble does happen, it happens fast, so you have to stay on your toes.”

After the checkered flag:
“We had fast race all day long,” Menard said. “Just having a lot of fun right now. Yeah, had a fast race car all weekend. What's cool is we've been to four different race tracks and we've had strong runs at all four. A testament to Slugger (Richard Labbe, crew chief) and everyone at RCR.”

Photo credit: Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com