by Dwight Drum at Racetake.com

Bristol Motor Speedway is one of the shortest tracks on the NASCAR circuit, but it’s also one of the most demanding events, physically and mentally. It might even be the most exhausting race—despite its length.

The coliseum atmosphere is special at Bristol for fans and drivers, as all are close to action.

The inevitable rubbing of sheet metal caused some destructive crashes Sunday that collected the cars of Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. All dropped in the points as a result of damage.

Thirty-eight cars completed the race even though only 15 finished all 500 laps.

The top three Sprint Cup finishers had words for the revered half-mile before the green flag and after the checkered flag.

Their pre-race thoughts are often prophetic and their post-race comments are normally descriptive of the action and more.

Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Dodge) Finished first. (Started fifth)

Before the green flag:

“There are two very large pieces to winning a race – speed and execution,” Keselowski said. “We have the speed. Now we just need to learn from our mistakes and execute better. Execution is the easier of the two to fix. Bristol is a great place for us to put everything together. We’ve all tasted success there and we can do it again.”

“If I had to pick a favorite, Bristol would be right at the top. The feeling I get when I walk through that tunnel is the same feeling I had when I went there for the first time. I’ve never been, but it has to be the same feeling that you get when you walk into the Roman Coliseum.”

After the checkered flag:

“I don’t see all the hate for new Bristol versus old Bristol.”Keselowski said. “To me I’m biased, I know, but to me this was one of the best Bristol races I’ve ever seen. We ran side-by-side for the lead for 20 laps. There was some good beating and banging, some wrecking, a lot of side-by-side action, two- and three-wides. I don’t know what’s better than that. Short of a 30-car wreck every damn week, I don’t know what to ask for.

“Last night that I thought I had the best Cup car I ever had. I’m thankful we were able to back it up as a team. Having the best car doesn’t guarantee you a win. Everybody on this team had to execute, and they did. It’s not always the guy with the fastest car that wins. Sometimes it’s the guy and the team that refuses to lose. The Miller Lite team got it done today, they refused to lose.

“Racing’s the one thing that makes me get up in the morning. That’s how I know it’s special. I love the challenge. I love the fight that you have to put up, the man versus machine or man with machine, against other machines and men. It’s cool as hell to me.”

Matt Kenseth (No. 17 Ford) Finished second. (Started 21st)

Before the green flag:

“I like going to Bristol a lot,” Kenseth said. “The track is different there after they reconfigured it, so it’s one that is always a challenge. You need to be ready for it because it’s a really fast track and things happen in a hurry.

“It’s one of the most fun races of the year so I think everyone always looks forward to heading to Bristol.”

After the checkered flag:

“You try to look in your mirror a little bit,” Kenseth said. “Hopefully your spotter is giving you the information you want. It’s so fast here; it’s hard to find time to ask. You try to run whatever line you think your car is the best in.

“I didn’t want Brad outside of me. He was good around the bottom. Everybody was good around the middle or the top. I wasn’t good around the bottom.

“I raced him as hard as I could race him. I hoped he would get under me and burn his right rear up. I was trying to be careful on mine, but I was running up against the fence there. He finally slipped by me and had a little bit better car at the end.”

Martin Truex Jr. (No. 56 Toyota) Finished third. (Started 15th)

Before the green flag:

“Bristol is a special track for me — I won my first Nationwide race there and had some good runs there last year with our NAPA Toyota,” Truex said. “We ran second there in the fall. Hopefully we can go back and better it by one.”

After the checkered flag:

“I was a little bit worried coming into the race today,” Truex said. “We weren’t exactly where we wanted to be at the end of Happy Hour.

“We were second here in the fall. Hoped to have a shot at winning today. We just fought track position too much. I felt at times we were as fast as anyone.

“We just got a good organization right now, a good bunch of people. We got three cars that seem to go to the racetrack and run really well each week. We’re able to feed off each other. We really showed that today all running up front at different parts of the day. All season our cars have been strong.”

FYI WIRZ is the select presentation of topics by Dwight Drum at Racetake.com. Unless otherwise noted, quotes and information were obtained from personal interviews or official release materials provided by NASCAR and team representatives.