COLUMN: It’s time for concrete Bristol to show up and shine

BRISTOL, Tenn. — New Bristol vs. Old. Concrete Bristol vs. Dirt.

Bristol has been at the center of some of NASCAR’s most contentious debates of the last 20 years.

After a few years with New Bristol, nearly a decade with New Bristol 2.0 and a trio of dirt races, Bristol is dusting itself off. Racing on the concrete twice annually is back for the first time since 2020.

How did we get here?

The star of the hottest ticket in all of U.S. motorsports at the time underwent a facelift in mid-2007. The banking in the turns went from 30° of bump-and-run, slam-bang -style racing – to 24-30° of cleaner, multi-groove racing.

While the reconfiguration doubled the number of green-flag passes (991 in Spring 2007 vs. 2,147 in the Summer), fans quickly let track officials know it wasn’t “Bristol Baby!” anymore.

The fifth New Bristol race was the first time in 55 races that officials didn’t sell out tickets.

After sections of the stands were visibly empty during the Spring 2012 race, officials made a change. Not even a month after the race, officials announced they would ground the banking of the high lane from 30° to 28° – hoping to make the bottom dominant.

The Summer 2012 race was a barnburner – but the high lane was even more dominant.

As Old Bristol faded from present view and attendance sagged like fans’ jackets on the often rainy race days they faced at the track, Speedway Motorsports, Inc. went for the nuclear option – Dirt racing.

Rain postponed the 2021 race by a day and delayed the 2022 race for hours.

Drivers disliked the dirt configuration. Most notably, Kyle Larson said he’d rather race on the concrete and that the Cup Series shouldn’t race on dirt.

In 2023, it didn’t matter that the race was solid – or that NASCAR showed the growing potential a Cup Series dirt race had – a scathing assessment from a dirt-centric driver like Larson, not to mention the crazy logistics of transforming the track each year, killed the dirt configuration.

Back to Square One.

Sliding attendance and inclement weather, affecting five of the last six normal spring concrete races, made the race contentious.

But, the night race helped good ol’ Bristol find stability.

When you ask fans about some of the most iconic races in recent memory, they often mention the night race.

2018. 2019.

And 2021. The night race weekend produced two classic races after a rough dirt weekend earlier in the year.

Now, here we are. It’s time for the concrete to shine in the spring. Especially to heal the deep scars of empty turn seats in 2019, the last normal spring race.

Fans need to show up, no matter the weather, no matter what, like they’ve done for the Daytona 500.

While the Daytona 500 is the Daytona 500, the race has faced years of poor weather. Yet, officials sell out tickets and fans pack the place each year.

If fans cherish the Spring Bristol concrete race weekend, they need to treat it the same way.

If the race falls through the cracks again, change will happen. Even with Bristol hosting no fewer than two dates since it first opened in 1961.

A cavernous, 140,000-plus-seat venue being half-empty is far worse for the sport than a full crowd of 30,000 people at a newly repaved track. Especially when said track is experiencing a huge revival and is arguably as historic, if not more, than the cavernous venue trying to find its old way again.

Not to mention, the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway project is still on tap, even if a NASCAR Cup Series race is still years away.

Concrete Bristol is back in the spring. Many will celebrate this and also believe all is right in the NASCAR world. But the work has only just begun to keep this permanent.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.