NASCAR on TV this week

5 Points to Ponder: Which Bristol Is It, Baby?

1. Bristol Has Had Split Personalities This Season, and Neither Might Be the “Real” One

It’s no secret that NASCAR hasn’t been able to figure out what vexes the Next Gen Cup Series car at short tracks. The racing product has declined almost across the board the last few years, and Bristol Motor Speedway has been no exception.

This year’s spring race looked like it might have hit upon a fix thanks to Goodyear, which brought a rapidly wearing tire compound that turned the race into delightful chaos with normal strategy turned on its head. Gimmicky? Sure, but it was entertaining.

Despite assurances that the same tires were given to teams for the night race, it was about as night and day a difference as … well, night and day. No huge tire wear, no crazy comers and goers and virtually no passes for the lead as Kyle Larson smacked the field around all evening long.

See also
The Big 6: Questions Answered After Kyle Larson Dominates at Bristol

Setting aside any conspiracy theories/debate about whether it was actually the same tire compound, there were differences in time of day, temperature and more between the spring and fall races. With that in mind, it wasn’t reasonable to expect the race would look the same as it did in the daylight a few months earlier.

But it also still didn’t really look like Bristol races of days gone by either. We might need next year to know for sure, but it’s starting to feel like the spring event was just a happy accident that might not be able to be replicated.

2. If That Was Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Final Race, At Least It Was Entertaining

Not with a whimper but with a bang. That’s as accurate a way as any to describe Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s eventful Xfinity Series race at Bristol, where his seventh-place finish doesn’t begin to tell the whole story.

First his radio didn’t work, leaving him unable to communicate with longtime spotter TJ Majors. It took multiple pit stops and several fixes before that got settled. Along the way, he left his glasses in one of the replacement helmets and had to have them handed back to him later.

Junior later dropped the volume control, leaving Majors speaking too loudly in his ear. He got into some tangles on the track and ended up flipping off Riley Herbst, then retracting it later. But he persevered through all of it for a top-10 finish in his lone Xfinity appearance of 2024.

Earnhardt wouldn’t say for sure if this was it for him, but he has no plans to race in 2025. On one hand, it would be strange to think fans will have this as their last memory of him behind the wheel, yet it also feels strangely fitting at the same time.

3. The Right Drivers Were Eliminated From the Cup Series Playoffs

While everyone who is a supporter of Ty Gibbs, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski or Harrison Burton might feel otherwise, the playoff eliminations after Bristol don’t seem wild or unfair at all.

Let’s take a quick spin through why:

  • Gibbs: Without a win during the regular season, he was always playing with fire. Bristol ended up his best finish during the Round of 16, and it was only 15th. Better luck next year, when hopefully that first Cup victory materializes.
  • Truex: Yes, it stinks that a speeding penalty ended his final playoff run, but he’s truthfully been miserable since Pocono Raceway, which is why he was in that dilemma in the first place.
  • Keselowski: Though he found something late in the 2023 season and the middle part of the 2024 campaign, he hasn’t been consistent or run up front much since Iowa Speedway back in June. Keselowski did score a top five at Michigan International Speedway, but nothing suggested he was going to really contend for the title if he advanced.
  • Burton: His championship was just making the playoffs at all.

No controversies or shocks there. We’ll see if that holds up during the next round.

4. Maybe Ryan Blaney Can Draw Inspiration From His Dad Going Out On Top

Ryan Blaney is one driver who will be moving on to the Round of 12 as he attempts to defend his Cup Series crown from last season. While repeating will be no easy task over the next seven weeks, he might be able to use his own father’s example for strength.

Dave Blaney, who raced in the Cup Series from 1992 to 2014, has continued to race in places like Sharon Speedway, the Ohio dirt track where he is a part-owner. That ended on Sunday (Sept. 22) night, when he called it a career in the best possible way: by winning the Lou Blaney Memorial race named for his own father for the third time.

God speed into retirement, Buckeye Bullet.

5. Maybe Now’s the Time to Try That More Horsepower Thing?

Well, not now, exactly, because there’s still the rest of the playoffs to get through, and making such a major change with Martinsville Speedway still looming in a few weeks seems unwise.

That said, NASCAR managed to stave off the critics for a bit after the Bristol tire experiment this spring. As we’ve already noted, that didn’t play out the same way in the fall.

There aren’t many things NASCAR hasn’t attempted to fix Next Gen short track racing, but it can’t say it’s tried everything until it gives more horsepower a go. Denny Hamlin has been banging the gong since March, and it’s gotten to the point where even skeptics are starting to wonder what the harm could be.

So this is a short plea to NASCAR: Can we please increase the horsepower for Martinsville next March? Pretty please?

After all, if it doesn’t help, you can simply say “we told you so” and change it back. Think about it.

Sign up for the Frontstretch Newsletter

A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.


5 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
WD

Instead of dumping dirt on the track for a couple of yrs they should have just put the asphalt back Nascar wants to control everything but they don’t own this track

gbvette62

It’s not the concrete surface at Bristol that’s the problem, it’s the progressive banking (and the next gen car). I had Bristol tickets in the 80’s & 90’s. The racing was generally pretty good there till they tore up the old concrete and put in the progressive banking.

Kevin in SoCal

Seems like they put too much banking into the top groove, which made it the preferred line.
But I will gladly support more horsepower. That puts the car control back into the hands of the drivers.

Bill B

They should at least stop advertising the race using wrecks that are from a track that no longer exists.

Kevin in SoCal

Or wrecks/incidents in which the drivers involved were fined. Seems hypocritical.