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Kvapil ready for Bristol II

Front Row Motorsports press release

Kvapil: Bring On the Short Track and Short Tempers
Bristol Brings Out Old-School, 'Tangled-Up' Racing

Travis Kvapil, Front Row Motorsports Ford
Travis Kvapil, Front Row Motorsports Ford

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

Statesville, N.C. (August 23, 2011) - Travis Kvapil has flashbacks every time he runs the night race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. Racing under the lights of the .533-mile oval takes him back to the early days of his racing career, running his local Wisconsin short tracks on Friday and Saturday nights. The driver of the No. 38 Long John Silver's Ford is ready for the always action-filled Irwin Tools Night Race this weekend, looking for another strong performance at a track where he has a solid history.

Kvapil had a strong Long John Silver's Ford and was looking at a top-25 finish at the March race at Bristol. A late-race spin set him back, but he recovered to finish 26th. His career-best finish at Bristol is seventh over 10 starts.

Comments from Long John Silver's team driver Travis Kvapil heading to Bristol:

"The Bristol night race is always a race you circle on your calendar. It reminds me of Friday-night, Saturday-night, short-track racing at your local speedway - times a hundred. There's 150,000 people there and it's packed. You're in a tiny, little half-mile track with 43 cars. It's loud, you see sparks flying, and the cars look really cool at night - they look faster.

"Crazy things always happen at the Bristol night race. I remember Dale Earnhardt and Terry Labonte getting tangled up once. You go to Bristol and there's always beating and banging and shoving people around. It's just part of Bristol racing. That's why it's such a fan favorite. And the drivers love going short-track racing, too. It takes us back to how we grew up in the sport, running the local tracks and learning your way up through the ranks.

"I think our Long John Silver's Ford will be pretty good for us at Bristol. Some of the short tracks are places where we feel like we can be a contender, even though we haven't shown it as much as we should. At Martinsville, I thought we had a really good car and we broke a gear, and that set us back. At the Bristol spring race, we had a pretty decent car and we had a solid finish. I was working with Derrick Finley as a crew chief for that race, but we can take those notes and combine it with what Jay Guy knows from racing there and have a good run.

"Bristol is a track I really enjoy going to. I've had success there in the truck series. It's really racy. You can run two and a half grooves there now, where before it was kind of a one-groove track. It's just a neat place. The atmosphere is great for Saturday night, short-track racing."

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