Shop Talk: Bristol

There's a reason all eyes will be on Bristol Motor Speedway this Sunday. The Car of Tomorrow offers something that fascinates all: the unknown. Will there be a difference? How much? Sunday will be a three-hour glimpse into the future.

But one thing is very well known about Bristol: Matt Kenseth is brilliant there. He has negotiated Bristol's high-banked terrain with incredible success, and the white-knuckle, bumper-to-bumper racing that would send most cowering has instead brought the best out of the 2003 Cup Series champion.

The statistics speak for themselves. With two victories and a third-place finish in the past three Cup Series races at Bristol, Kenseth is in a class by himself.

Look at some of these Average Running Position numbers. Kenseth leads all drivers with an Average Running Position of 3.464 for the past four Bristol races. In second is another Bristol master, Jeff Gordon. Though his Average Running Position (7.684) also is impressive, it's still more than four positions behind Kenseth's.

The Loop Data features a stat that illustrates consistency called "Laps in the Top 15." With Kenseth at Bristol, it can be narrowed down even more than the Top 15. Check out these Laps in the Top Five for the past four races at Bristol -- a total of 2,000 laps.

Kenseth has spent an absurd amount of time in the top five -- 89 percent of his laps. In the August 2005 race, Kenseth led 415 laps. He has led more than 100 laps in each of his past three appearances at the .533-mile track.

In fact, in terms of Average Running Position, Kenseth has more success at Bristol than any other driver at any other track.

Kenseth's pre-race average Driver Rating at Bristol is best in the series. He has a 127.7 Driver Rating, which is more than 20 points higher than the second-best active driver, Jeff Gordon (106.2). Rusty Wallace, who retired after the 2005 season, has a Driver Rating of 111.4 in two races at Bristol.

Kenseth's Driver Rating in the August 2005 race was a near-perfect 148.8, just two-tenths off the perfect 150.0. Only four times in Cup competition has a driver scored a better Driver Rating than Kenseth did in that Bristol race. Here is the top five Cup Driver Ratings since the stat originated in 2005:

Kenseth also is tops at Bristol in Fastest Laps Run (195), Green Flag Speed, Fastest on the Frontstretch and Fastest on the Backstretch.