4 Million Reasons Justify NASCAR’s Unpopular Bristol Dirt Decision Amidst Dale Earnhardt Jr Criticism

The NASCAR Bristol Dirt Race has concluded, and it saw the Cup Series driver Kyle Busch run away with the winner’s trophy. The race has seen some of the most breathtaking entertainment but also raked up a unique record.

The Food City Dirt race has seen quite a bit of attendance despite being on Easter Sunday. Even Dale Earnhardt Jr criticized the fixture for placing it right on the auspicious day. Dale expressed that the television rights insisted the race organizers hold the race on that very day.

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Earnhardt Jr also stated that the drivers can’t help, but to show up for the races. However, the race seemed to have paid off. Despite racing on Easter, the number of viewers for the Cup Series race who watched is pretty impressive. This shows the rise of the sport in the country.

Talking about this, Adam Stern, a motorsport journalist wrote on Twitter, “FoxTV earned 4.007 million viewers for Sunday night’s Bristol dirt race, the most-watched NASCAR event of any kind at Bristol Motor Speedway since spring 2016. For the season so far, NASCAR is up 17% from 2021.”

NASCAR Bristol Dirt Race finished with excitement

The most anticipated Dirt race has seen Busch come out lucky. Till the very last lap, it was all about Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe. The two drivers reached the last lap of the twice-delayed race. They were just a split-second apart until Briscoe hit Reddick. Instead of passing Tyler, Chase collected him and got him out of the way to give Kyle the win.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver conveyed after the race, “We got one, doesn’t matter how you get them, it’s all about getting them. Every time it rained, both times, it just would not fire and took me about 20 laps to get going. Overall, just real pumped to be back. Real pumped to get a win. This one means a lot. I can win on any surface here in Bristol. Bring it on, baby.”

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It’ll be interesting to see if the Joe Gibbs Racing driver can manage to fetch himself further wins this season and extend his lead for the most wins as a driver.