Despite NASCAR’s ‘Record-Setting’ Stance, Bristol’s Concrete Return Fails to Succeed the Last Great Colosseum History

The Food City 500 race at Bristol Motor Speedway turned out to be the most thrilling yet chaotic experience for the teams and the drivers. It was as if NASCAR rolled down the years, and put up a vintage racing product that is adored and appreciated by the fans. A race where the driver and not the technology control the fate of the overall results.

After experimenting with dirt at Bristol for three years, NASCAR decided to go back to concrete in the spring event, a call that had major repercussions on the team’s preparations and actual racing experience. By and large, despite the concerns regarding tire wear, the race was a big success, according to John Probst, NASCAR’s senior vice president. However, when the actual numbers and polls are taken into consideration, this event still lags behind the greatest showdown at the iconic racing venue.

NASCAR fans deliver their verdict on Sunday’s Bristol race

No one would have expected that tire conservation would be a vital factor with the return of concrete racing at Bristol Motor Speedway. Despite its challenges, the final stage of the race served as a perfect finale, where drivers and teams pushed their cars to the limit. Thus delivering the best strategic plays and tactics spectators have witnessed in a long time.

However, as far as fan polls are taken into consideration, last Sunday’s race was the 6th best feature on the historic half-mile short track venue. NASCAR reporter Jeff Gluck shared the results of his poll via his X account. A total of forty-four thousand participants took the poll, which had some interesting answers.

As far as spring races were concerned, the participants believed that it was the third-best-ever spring race display of NASCAR racing at the venue. Whereas it ranked 12th best out of the 50 short-track races run over the years.

Another big takeaway from the Bristol race was the use of resin compound over the PJ1. However, there was a good reason for NASCAR to go with resin based on the experience from last year’s race in the fall.

John Probst explains why NASCAR chose to go with resin over PJ1

One of the initial concerns the experts and fans expressed was the use of resin that was sprayed on the inside of the race track, one of the turns. Many believed that it was due to the resin that the tires were wearing out quickly. However, this was not the case, as Probst explained their pick of resin over PJ1 and how resin was not the root cause of excess tire wear during the race.

“When we came here and tested, we tried the PJ, and when we went the track down, it was almost like oil on the track; cars will get no traction. So we came back with the wet weather packaged for Bristol, and we elected to use resin versus the PJ1. There’s nothing that stands out about why resins vs PJ did what it did, you look at the friction levels they were growing throughout the weekend… It could have been just a combination of resin temperature and all of it today. It’s too soon to put a definitive reason for any of it but great race,” Probst said via NASCAR.

It will be interesting to see if NASCAR decides to tweak the tire compounds for the upcoming short-track race late in the season.

Read More: The Beautiful Disaster at Bristol – Did NASCAR’s Short Track Package Actually Work?