Spring has sprung, a time when the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano, the buzzards return to Hinckley, Ohio, and Rusty Wallace comes back to his all-time favorite track -- Bristol Motor Speedway.

Nine of Wallace's 54 career Winston Cup wins have come on the legendary .533-mile oval, where 180,000 fans pack the stands, aisles and just about any other space they can find to watch fender banging and close racing at its finest. The Fenton, Mo., native has also started from the pole seven times (winning four times) at the northeastern Tennessee bullring.

Bristol Memories

Check out Wallace's top 11 highlights -- and lowlights -- at Bristol: 1. April 6, 1986: Wallace started 14th and led three times for 174 laps en route to his first Winston Cup win. It came in his 72nd start. 2. Aug. 26, 1988: Wallace was involved in one of the worst crashes in his career. In practice, he blew a right front tire and launched off the fourth-turn wall, flipping wildly down the frontstretch. Miraculously, he started the race the next night, then turned the driving duties over to Larry Pearson. The ninth-place finish kept Wallace in the thick of the points battle. 3. April 9, 1989: Wallace started eighth and won his third of six races that season, going on to capture the championship. 4. April 14, 1991: Wallace raced from the pole to Victory Lane in Penske South Racing's sixth start. 5. April 4, 1993: Wallace won the pole the day after friend Alan Kulwicki died in a plane crash attempting to land at a Bristol-area airport. Pitting in Kulwicki's spot, Wallace records his fourth Bristol win. He pays tribute to the fallen champ by performing Kulwicki's patented backward victory lap. 6. Aug. 26, 1995: An early race "punt" by Dale Earnhardt put Wallace out of action for 46 laps. Wallace retaliated with some harsh words and by throwing and connecting with a plastic water bottle. 7. Aug. 24, 1996: Wearing a "neon yellow" driving suit for the first and only time, Wallace started fifth and dominated to post his sixth Bristol win. With his "teammates" from Don Prudhomme's NHRA team joining him in Victory Lane, Wallace names his winning ride "Snake." 8. April 13, 1997: The famous 'love tap' episode with Jeff Gordon. Wallace had taken the lead for the final time on lap 415 and led the race until the last turn of the last lap when contact from the rear applied by Gordon got Wallace out of shape enough to allow Gordon to pass for the win. 9. April 11, 1999: Wallace started from the pole and dominated. Leading 425 of 500 laps, Wallace named the car 'Banker' because of the high banks and the team taking the money to the bank. 10. April 26, 2000: Wallace started sixth and led 86 laps, including the final 76 en route to the win, his second spring Bristol victory in a row, and most importantly, his 50th career win. 11. Aug. 26, 2000: Wallace started from the pole and led five 279 laps en route to his 53rd career win and his ninth at Bristol. It marked the first time he won both Bristol races in the same season.

Bristol is not only the place where Wallace has the most victories, it's also where he claimed the two most significant victories of his career -- his first Winston Cup triumph in April 1986, as well as his 50th career win in March 2000.

"It's like a home track for us and we're always so pumped up for the Bristol races," said Wallace, who will be making his 37th career start at Bristol in Sunday's Food City 500. "We have so much history behind us at Bristol ... nine wins and seven poles ... it's where I won my first and my 50th race…what else can I say about the place?

"From day one, I just loved the place. If there is a track anywhere where we really feel at home, it has to be Bristol. The place has, is and always will be extra special."

Short-track racing is where Wallace excels like no other driver. In fact, nearly half of Wallace's career victories in Winston Cup competition have come at facilities shorter than one-mile in length: Nine at Bristol, six each at Martinsville (.526-mile) and Richmond (.750-mile), and three wins at North Wilkesboro (a .625-mile facility which is no longer on the schedule).

"I cut my teeth on short tracks," Wallace said. "As for Bristol, every time I get a chance to run there and do good like we normally do, you end up really liking the place."

Wallace's nine wins at Bristol are the most among all active drivers. Darrell Waltrip holds the all-time mark there with 12 wins, followed by Wallace, the late Dale Earnhardt and Cale Yarborough, each with nine. The next closest active driver to Wallace's mark is defending Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon with four wins at Bristol.

Because of its tight circumference, Bristol is a fender-banging heaven -- or nightmare, depending on your particular tastes. There are drivers like Wallace who just love to go fast and mash bumpers with opponents, while there are others who absolutely dread the close action, the minimal passing opportunities and the track's extremely high 36-degree banked turns.

But Wallace is like a kid in a candy store when he pulls his No. 2 Ford onto Bristol's concrete surface. There's just something about the combination of a short track, concrete paving and tight racing that brings out the best in Wallace, and his scorecard proves it: In addition to his nine wins and seven poles, the 45-year-old veteran leads every active driver in performance at Bristol with 19 top-5 and 25 top-10 finishes. His last two victories there came as he swept both races in 2000.

Wallace and his team were rained out of a scheduled test session at Bristol last week. But Wallace knows every groove in the place and could probably race around it in his sleep.

"We certainly did want to get those two days of testing in last week, but the weather just didn't cooperate with us," said Wallace, who is fourth in the standings, trailing frontrunner Sterling Marlin by 148 points. "We thought we were just a tick off in the qualifying and in the races at Bristol last season and hoped to work on that. But the fact is that we're carrying a ton of momentum going into Bristol and that means a whole lot."

Wallace qualified fourth and finished seventh in last year's Food City 500, and came back for a fifth-place run in the Sharpie 500 in late August -- stellar performances for most any other driver, but not for Wallace, whose standards are higher.

"We've had so much success at Bristol that we always come there looking to qualify up front, lead the most laps and head to Victory Lane when the thing is over," Wallace said. "In the spring race there last year, we didn't lead any laps, but I think we were stronger than that seventh-place finish showed. We cut a tire down and got behind early in the race and track position proved to be so important. It was pit strategy, with guys not pitting and all at the end.

"In the night race last summer, we got out front and led a ton of laps (led two times for total of 123 laps). We had the car to beat for much of the race, but it got a little too loose at the end. We were running fourth, but we got bumped up the track in Turn 3 on the last lap and wound up finishing fifth."

With its unique two pit road structure, pit strategy is crucial at Bristol, and will be perhaps even more critical in Sunday's race, when new procedures go into effect. The pace car will be uncharacteristically stationed in Turn 3, rather than Turn 1. Once all cars on the track have passed under the caution flag, both the front and back pit roads at Bristol will be closed and the pace car will then pick up the field upon leaving its spot in Turn 3.

Once the field enters Turn 2, all cars on the lead lap that intend to pit must enter pit road at the backstretch entrance in Turn 2, regardless of the location of the team's pit stall. Cars pitting on the frontstretch will proceed off the back pit road, around the apron and onto the frontstretch pits. Once a pit stop has been completed, all cars will exit the frontstretch pit road in Turn 1. Those cars that are a lap or more down will then follow the same procedure.

While it may sound confusing, Wallace and crew chief Bill Wilburn think they've got the new procedure all mapped out.

"Hopefully, we've got that covered," Wilburn said. "Rusty took us out to a Mexican restaurant one night at Darlington and we discussed it. Jeffrey (Jeff Thousand, chassis specialist), Hoke (Tom Hoke, shock specialist) and I took a napkin on the table and drew it all out.

"It could cause some controversy, but we think we have a handle on it … at least we hope so."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com.