After two consecutive weekends within the deserts round Phoenix and Las Vegas, the NASCAR Cup Sequence has traded low-banked tracks and asphalt for a wholly completely different floor within the East.
NASCAR will run the Meals Metropolis 500 on Sunday afternoon on the steep, concrete structure of the Bristol Motor Speedway quick observe within the Blue Ridge Mountains of Tennessee.
This time a yr in the past, BMS had one thing in widespread with the arid areas, not the racing surfaces, that NASCAR simply left after two entertaining races.
Dust.
Beginning in 2021, Bristol’s spring race was reworked into a mud bullring the place Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Christopher Bell recorded wins.
However racing followers’ quest for filth racing, a preferred kind across the nation, seemingly ran its course, particularly at BMS — a coliseum-like enviornment the place drivers bumped and banged on the excessive banks at excessive speeds, typically with tempers that elevated like the encompassing mountains.
Good filth racing requires moisture, and wetness creates mud. NASCAR’s resolution to maintain the windshields within the automobiles grew to become a muddy battle, whereas dryness would create mud that will hinder followers’ visibility.
After what was only a dangerous match, the powers that be determined it was time to ditch the filth on the observe dubbed “The Final Nice Colosseum.”
Briefly, Bristol’s a giant deal.
The positioning of an NFL exhibition between Washington and the Philadelphia Eagles in 1961 and a significant school matchup between Tennessee and Virginia Tech in 2016, BMS is again to concrete for the foreseeable future.
RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski gained Bristol’s final spring 500-lapper on Might 31, 2020. It was the fifth race again after COVID shut down the marketing campaign for 2 months following the Phoenix race that Logano gained.
Of the energetic drivers on BMS’ concrete, Kyle Busch leads with eight victories, however he has not gained in Bristol for the reason that spring of 2019.
Darrell Waltrip holds the all-time document with 12 triumphs.
Prior to now two summer season evening races on the .533-mile quick observe’s concrete, Bell completed fourth and third and earned a pole.
“I really like racing at Bristol,” mentioned the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who roasted the sphere Sunday in Arizona on the ultimate restart. “It is actually my favourite race on the schedule. I am very grateful we get to go twice this yr. It has been a observe we now have excelled on the final couple of occasions we now have been there — we have been shut.”
Like Keselowski, Denny Hamlin owns three Bristol wins — all within the evening race — together with the latest one final September.
“As a purist, I really like seeing this race again on the concrete,” mentioned Hamlin, who additionally scored BMS wins in 2012 and 2019. “Clearly, because the final man that gained there, it may be good to return there and sort of check what this automobile needs in comparison with what we had previously.
“We will should tweak on it, however we really feel like we have got an excellent base setup with what we had final yr.”
As a result of excessive speeds and excessive banks, NASCAR is not going to use the short-track package deal this week that it debuted on Phoenix’s flat observe.
