Welcome to The Pace Lap, your catchall preview post! Let's get you started on race weekend with a metric truckload of stats, facts, opinion and innuendo.
The race: Saturday, Aug. 22, 7:43 p.m. Eastern
The specs: 500 (whew!) laps on a 0.533-mile track
The broadcasts: ESPN. The live chat right here on Yahoo! Sports. And all day Saturday, I'll be roaming Bristol and taking you along via a live Twitter feed. Follow along, won't you?
Defending champ: Carl Edwards, who is apparently only the size of an action figure, judging from that Sharpie at left.
The standings leaders: Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and a bunch of other guys.
The history: This Saturday night's race is said to be the toughest ticket to get in sports outside of Olympic Opening Ceremonies. The track, with a capacity of 160,000, is the largest amphitheater on the planet. The Roman Colosseum had a capacity of about 50,000, and the Circus Maximus in Rome had a capacity of 250,000. [Insert Mark Martin joke here.]
The appropriate video: From last summer's Bristol race, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch tangle at the end of the race. This led Kyle to make his infamous "Mr. Ed" comment about Carl:
Guy(s) with the most to gain: Brian Vickers and Clint Bowyer, once again. These two, particularly Vickers, are knocking on the door of the Chase, and with the way that Bristol victimizes people without regard to talent or position, both could find themselves in the Chase come Saturday night.
Guy with the most to lose: Kyle Busch. It's now or never, as Elvis would say, and if Kyle Busch doesn't make the Chase, it would have to go down as a colossal embarrassment and a total underachievement. He may be the most talented pound-for-pound driver in NASCAR, but he's got to put all the other pieces in place, starting this weekend.
Our pick to win: Edwards. Sometime soon, this guy's absolutely got to break through. I feel like the dude who keeps losing at blackjack but keeps doubling his bets to catch up. Edwards is going to win or I'm going to go bankrupt, one of the two.
All right, you're up. Who's your pick for this weekend? Go!
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