Was Bristol a success this week?

[BTExpress]

So I watched from a far for the last few weeks as The Bristol Nationals approached and saw many comments both positive and negative. It is amazing how many people had an opinion on the subject. Was it considered a success? Did the promotors make money either from PPV or ticket sales? Did the grassroot drivers have fun and check off a life bucket list item?. I know I watched a video from THE HUNT THE FRONT guys and saw how excited they were when they saw the track for the first time. I am sure that feeling was mutual for most of the teams from the Hornet teams to the DLM teams. The NASCAR drivers accomplished their goals of getting dirt experience to varying degrees of success. Yung Money did not disappoint and Davenport rolled the dice by missing Brownstown and came up the big winner.......The promotors fought the weather, schedule changes and other factors all week. I would be curious to see if they would do it again????

[TerryM]

There’s plenty to work on, adjust, tweak, etc., but the bottom line is, it brought a ton of exposure to dirt track racing and that’s 100% an awesome thing. If they do it again next year, I’m buying the PPV again, or we’ll be there in person hopefully.

[dirtSLMracing]

42 supers for 50k is an epic fail.

[JabberJaws83]

42 supers for 50k is an epic fail.

Bristol isn’t for everyone. Equipment and talent wise

[WisWildManFan]

Probably depends who you ask. I know a street stock guy that had been at Bristol since last Saturday that only ran one 8 lap heat and then had trouble in the b main early on so only got about 10-12 racing laps on the track. I think the biggest takeaway I had was they need to let that track wear out and not rework it so hard. I have a feeling if they tried this event again next your car counts would be down significantly a lot like what happened in 2000 and 2001. The good news is the track held up nicely and this group that laid this dirt down could go do it at some other iconic asphalt tracks if they wanted to. Imagine laying some dirt down at Salem, winchester, irp, martinsville. Only time will tell if it was a success financially fo those involved. I really hope the nascar weekend is a success because for this to happen other places we need the TV money behind the whole deal.

[weatherman85]

I thought it was a success speaking purely from a fan’s point of view. Sure there are things they can improve on and tweak, but you’re almost never gonna get everything right the first time around. I actually think the whole Triple Crown deal is cool. Would be even better I think if they could add a couple more and make it a 5 race series. Add the dirt track at Charlotte and be neat if Martinsville could be added but I know that’s wishful thinking. Do any of the other nascar tracks have a dirt track on or near the grounds?

[Mister Ricochet]

So I watched from a far for the last few weeks as The Bristol Nationals approached and saw many comments both positive and negative. It is amazing how many people had an opinion on the subject.

Great topic nicely laid out, sir. I too read many of the opinions, didn't cough the 40 bucks but saw some YouTube footage...... Going in what I was watching for from a lot of the comments was the dangerous speeds they were getting in practice and would someone get hurt. As far as I know that came out ok.

In that context I was amazed at the track and the prep. Whoever put the track together did a helluva job cuz as far as I could tell it held up even with the freakish speeds.

I'd echo that the exposure dirt racing got is the single best thing about Bristol. There has to be some pure asphalt fans that are intrigued, will go to a race live and maybe stream a few races. ....... Speaking personally 20 yrs ago I got dragged kicking and screaming to a dirt race at LaSalle, and I'm not even an asphalt fan, really not a race fan period, and was hooked before hot laps ended.

I can see that happening to NASCAR fans too if they find their way to a dirt track cuz of what they saw at Bristol.

[mcarter815]

42 supers for 50k is an epic fail.

42 is enough.

[kazual]

Bristol confirmed to me that there a lot of negative Nellies on 4m and social media. Some seem like they prefer a dusty, one lane used up race track that has 7 classes and takes 8 hours to run the program. Some of the underclasses got their moment in the sun, not including the frustration of some of the 4 cylinder guys. Herculean effort for the first time.

[Paradox28]

from a fan watching on XR..the two things that I was annoyed/underwhelmed/turned off by was the inopportune track farming and a very glaring time management issue. Some of the breaks seemed far too long for an event with that many cars and it seemed even more crazy with a couple known weather issues. It also seemed like every time the racing would be starting to widen out and guys could move around..they would stop and take 2 hours to re-work the track and make it one groove again. Oddly enough, I thought the best racing of the whole week was yesterday when there were a few holes in the track and it was bone dry. Purely guessing, I would say if the event happens again, there will be a lower cap on car counts for each class and maybe even two day shows for a few groups at a time through the 6 days.

[John Boy]

I was there Saturday night. Glad I went, but wouldn't go again. Turned out to be a long day and night. Nice sized crowd though. I was in the second row coming out of two. No dustier than any other track I've been to. They did spend a bunch of time working one and two. What ate up a lot of time was moving cars in and out of the track.

[latemodelman]

I say it was a mixed bag. The success was they got alot of laps on it and had alot of paying customers so that was good. Also you got alot of exposure as well and you had cup guys trying it out. Now the failures this one is gonna hurt. The big one was the track worker playing on his cell phone when 2 cars were stopped in the middle of the backstretch and the green was thrown and they got hit at full speed 1 suffering 6 broken ribs and a punctured lung and another with a severe concussion that caused his pupils to become unstable and shake. That track official should be banned from ever being an employee of a track. Also where were the guys in the tower at. Also 42 Super lates not good but seems like most guys did not want to hurt their motors. Also it was a tuneup to the cup race.

[TS FAN]

Cup race should be entertaining

[dirtSLMracing]

I say it was a mixed bag. The success was they got alot of laps on it and had alot of paying customers so that was good. Also you got alot of exposure as well and you had cup guys trying it out. Now the failures this one is gonna hurt. The big one was the track worker playing on his cell phone when 2 cars were stopped in the middle of the backstretch and the green was thrown and they got hit at full speed 1 suffering 6 broken ribs and a punctured lung and another with a severe concussion that caused his pupils to become unstable and shake. That track official should be banned from ever being an employee of a track. Also where were the guys in the tower at. Also 42 Super lates not good but seems like most guys did not want to hurt their motors. Also it was a tuneup to the cup race.

What class was it when the guy was on the phone? I havent seen a video of it.

[Josh Bayko]

Only people that can really answer if it was a success are the promoters of the race.