Imagine flying a jet fighter around the inside of an arena.

"And try that with 42 other jets doing it at the same time," said Mark Martin, veteran Nextel Cup driver and private pilot.

That sums up Bristol Motor Speedway, a track Martin says "can be crazy."

Most drivers have either a love or a hate relationship with the second-shortest track on the Cup circuit at .533 miles. The same can be said with Martinsville Speedway, which is the shortest at .526 miles.

But Bristol, the site of Sunday's Food City 500, and Martinsville, the site of April 10's Advance Auto Parts 500, are as different as Kurt Busch's Ford and Michael Schumacher's Ferrari.

Bristol is like going around the inside of a volcano, with 33-degree banking in the corners and 16 degrees on the straightaways.

Drivers can't go nearly as fast at Martinsville, where it is like going around a circle of cones in a parking lot. The brake-burning track has only 12-degree banking in the corners and no banking in the straightaways, but it's tighter than Bristol.

NASCAR hasn't scheduled back-to-back short-track races since 1999.

One of those who love Bristol is veteran Rusty Wallace, who said: "I've always been quick to call it my favorite track." Bristol was the site of his first Cup victory in 1986 and his 50th of 55. He has been to victory lane at Bristol nine times, with seven runner-up finishes in 42 starts.

But nobody has seemed to master the "bullring" faster than Busch.

The driver who grew up competing on even shorter tracks in Nevada has got the checkered flag four times in only eight Cup starts at Bristol.

That's pretty incredible at any Cup track, but especially remarkable for a place where DNFs are as commonplace as NASCAR crew chief fines. If cars don't break down, then there's a good chance they'll end up in a crash.

Busch, the championship leader after four races, is going for four victories in a row at Bristol's spring race.

Who can forget his first win at the short track, when he used a brash bump-and-run move on a very perturbed Jimmy Spencer?

Busch's to-do list at Bristol: save tires; keep your eyes focused on the track; protect your car; and be patient but know when to go fast.

Busch's don't-do list: burn brakes; spend too much time looking in the rear-view mirror; go to the outside unless you know it will hold; and put yourself in a position to wreck.

Then there's the to-do list of veteran Sterling Marlin: qualify up front; remember there are no friends on the track; and swap places if a person behind is faster, especially Busch, because it's better to finish than wreck.

Marlins' don't-do list: make a mistake that sends the car to the back (which puts you a half-lap down); knock the radiator out of the car; get hung out to dry on the outside lane; and use the walls - the best finishes come from cars that have no scratches on them.

Joe Nemechek of Lakeland has left Bristol with more than his fair share of paint left on the walls and believes it's time that Bristol started being nice to him.

He has never finished better than 16th in 20 Cup starts.

"Bristol is no different than restrictor-plate racing," said Nemechek, driver of the No. 01 Chevy. "If someone makes a bad move, it can cause a big wreck that can pile up a whole bunch of cars in a short period of time.

"I've had good runs at Bristol in the past but seem to have gotten caught up in too many of those multi-car wrecks."

Last fall, Nemechek's race ended after only 33 laps when he was clipped and crashed into Turn 1, suffering a knee injury that required arthroscopic surgery to repair in the offseason.

"Hopefully," Nemechek said, "the Bristol jinx has run its course."