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Bristol: The way it oughta be
By admin | March 16, 2008
Bristol: The way it oughta be
By Richard Allen
The Bristol Motor Speedway uses the slogan, “Racin’ the way it oughta be.” Last August, the track produced an event which was anything but that.
Well, fear not fans of the concrete bullring. The old track was back and perhaps even better than ever.
In the summer of 2007 Speedway Motorsports, the track’s owner, decided to resurface the high banked oval and add progressive banking to create more side by side racing. The race following the changes did not exactly produce what fans and track promoters had hoped for. Instead, drivers played a less than exciting game of follow the leader for 500 laps.
Sunday, however, the speedway so many fans call their favorite was back. Driver Ken Schrader remarked that, “They’ve given us a place where we can really race.”
There was plenty of side by side racing, there were lead changes, there was late race drama and even an invitation to fight. That’s the Bristol we have come to know and love.
Perhaps the best thing about the way the Food City 500 played out was that there did not have to be a caution flag every 20 laps for the racing to be intense and entertaining. There were long segments of green flag racing as the event was slowed by 10 cautions, as opposed to the 15-20 yellows races here have produced in the past.
The green flag runs did not necessarily equate to boredom. Positions changed throughout the runs as some cars handled better on new tires and some better on old tires. And, as always lapped traffic served to provide an accordion effect which kept the lead cars within striking distance of each other.
And for the grand finally, the track that has produced numerous wild finishes had another one in store for the 165,000 in attendance. A late race caution set up a pit or not scenario. Some of the lead cars hit pit road with less than 15 laps remaining in the race while others stayed out. That set up what would be an old style Bristol finish.
The cars on new tires came screaming through the field until the machines of Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart ran into one another and sent Stewart sliding into the wall. The track that might well have been the birthplace of the bump and run, or the Bristol bump, provided yet another of those trademark moves.
And what would a race at Bristol be without an invitation to settle the issue? Soon after climbing from his car Harvick announced over the public address system that if Stewart wanted to come over and fight about he was welcome to do so.
Now that’s Bristol. Racin’ the way it oughta be.
Richard Allen is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association. His weekly column appears in The Mountain Press every Wednesday.
Topics: Articles |
March 17th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Whoa Rich! Before you bless the new track, you should have another point of view, one that’s not getting a lot of press because you people behind the keyboard like the cookie cutter racing that most of the tracks have, instead of the racing that made Bristol the number one track (until now).
This is what I added to the Bristol post on http://forums.gospeedway.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=3652
But I know this will never see the light of day in the mainsteam NASCAR articles:
Most people know my feelings on the new track (see http://forums.gospeedway.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=2145), so it should be no surprise that I was once again disappointed. It was a great finish, but before any of the Bristol “Love-it-no-matter-what” fans rejoice about the second coming of the new Bristol, I have to remind you all that we had to sit through 495 laps of Michigan racing to get to five laps of Bristol racing. And the action was thanks to a caution, pit strategy and a mistake by Stewart.
There were people literally snoozing around me at some points of the race. Bristol used to have a slogan, “Pay for the whole seat, but only use the edge.” Well, at the time, that was a true statement. But now, there’s no longer the constant fender rubbing and action that the veteran Bristol fan has been accustomed to seeing all race long. Now, you pay for the whole seat, and as a bonus, use the backrest to doze now and then.
I keep hearing the drivers and owners swoon about the new track, but if the drivers and owners like the new configuration, it can’t be good for the fans. Besides, how many tickets do the drivers buy? In case they haven’t heard, the fans drive the sport. As a friend of mine said, let’s get back to where the drivers have to earn their money and stop acting like the primadonnas the fans think they are becoming.
One of the things I noticed was the lack of acceleration coming out of the turns. It used to be the cars could/would noticably accelerate down the straightaways and have to brake hard going into the corner, and then accelerate out again. The cars would look like they were shot out of a cannon. No more. The smooth transitions make it easier to get in and out of the turns, i.e, less skill, reflexes and concentration needed (don’t have to worry about spinning those tires coming out of the turns anymore). OF COURSE the drivers are going to like it better.
I know all you side-by-side fans are in heaven. And the drivers like the side-by-side gentleman racing instead of the Saturday night gritty white-knuckle grind it out for the win style. But if the drivers and fans like that kind of gentlemanly sport, they should take up Golf or Tennis and leave racing to the real drivers.