BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Jimmy Spencer has never tried to mask his love of Bristol Motor Speedway, proven last year when he gushed over the Tennessee track in Victory Lane after a Busch Series race.

Spencer won't get to navigate the high-banked 0.533-mile bullring Saturday night in the Sharpie 500. NASCAR suspended him one week for punching Kurt Busch, and Spencer will have to skip his favorite race track.

"I hate to see Jimmy not going to Bristol," driver Dale Jarrett said. "He has always found that a place that he runs well and probably an opportunity for his team to have a good week and possibly win a race."

Few drivers ever want to miss the Saturday night race in Bristol, where 160,000 fans fill the bowl-like stadium to see their favorite drivers bump and bang under the lights. It's an electric atmosphere on a hot summer night that often creates flaring tempers and on-track skirmishes.

"Bristol at night just has a special excitement to it," Steve Park said. "The sparks from the cars bottoming out, the whole bullring show under the lights, and the electricity among the fans in the grandstands is just something special.

"And, on top of that, it's just an exciting race. It's one of the best races to be a spectator."

The crashes are often, and because of the tight confines of the track, a wreck in turn one can often catch cars that were in turn three when it first started.

"It's like a rush-hour interstate at 120 mph," Robby Gordon said. "There's 43 cars sitting right on top of each other, usually trying not to hit each other but wanting the next guy to get out of the way."

Rusty Wallace has always been a master at Bristol, with a track-best nine career victories. One of them came in 1993, just 70 hours after reigning Winston Cup champion Alan Kulwicki was killed in a plane crash with three others as they attempted to land at a nearby airport.

Racing went on that weekend and Wallace dominated the event, leading 376 of 500 laps. He celebrated the win with a "Polish Victory Lap" as a tribute to Kulwicki, driving around the track in reverse direction as was Kulwicki's trademark.

Wallace will make another backward lap Saturday night, kicking off NASCAR's Victory Lap tribute to longtime series sponsor R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in the parade laps before the Sharpie 500.

The tribute pairs a still-active past Winston Cup champion with an inactive or late champion, so Wallace will run his parade laps with a replica of Kulwicki's old car.

"Everybody knows that Bristol is my favorite track and I think it was Alan's, too," Wallace said. "I think when we take the show car and my car out there and do the Polish victory lap, I think it'll really bring the house down."

Wallace won his first Winston Cup race at Bristol in 1986, but is in the longest drought of his career, now at 84 races without a win. Wallace almost scored his 10th Bristol win last August, but had it snatched away by rival Jeff Gordon in the waning moments.

Jeff Gordon tapped Wallace in the rear with two laps to go, knocking Wallace loose just enough to slip by and win the race.

Jeff Gordon, third in the series standings and looking to rebound from back-to-back poor finishes, expects another battle with Wallace on Saturday night.

"I know Rusty will have his car ready for Bristol," Jeff Gordon said. "And I look forward to battling him all the way to the finish."