There is a debate brewing online and the main question is, was the Bristol Night Race fun to watch? Many fans believe that because of Kyle Larson’s absolute dominance, there was not much to enjoy during the race. Larson led 462 out of 500 laps and he managed to even lap a few cars in the process.

Although it’s a great win for Kyle Larson, as such dominance is unheard of during the Next Gen era of NASCAR, many fans are expressing their feelings of disappointment. Everything started when Jeff Gluck from the Athletic put up a poll asking fans what they thought about the race. The votes were not in Larson’s favor and it got to him.

The poll results that upset Kyle Larson

It was an important race for Kyle Larson and winning it put him at the top of the playoffs. This is definitely a great occasion for Kyle Larson, but many fans aren’t as joyed. Jeff Gluck often asks his fans if they enjoyed watching a certain race and when it came to Bristol, only 27.2% said yes.

Watching Kyle Larson drive unbeatably was something that fans did not enjoy. It was the opposite of what happened at Watkins Glen, where the number of incidents on the track was what made it worth watching.

When Jeff Gluck put out the poll results on X, Kyle Larson retweeted it and captioned the post, “Lead 450 laps but have 2 overtime restarts and lose and I guarantee the percentage is flip flopped. That’s our fan base.”

The post then made its way to Reddit, where it had the same caption as what Larson put out, with a few words from the fan. The fan seemed to be siding with the majority of the community, but there were still some hardcore Larson fans who defended the race on his behalf.

Fans come together to support Kyle Larson after an unsettling vote

Some fans believe that experiencing a dominant performance, like Kyle Larson’s, helps them appreciate close finishes more and vice versa. This sentiment is reflected in the comment by a fan, appreciating Martin Truex Jr’s dominating performance at Charlotte. Their comment read, “Sometimes you gotta have an ass kicking to appreciate the close finishes. And sometimes the close finishes make you appreciate the ass kickings a bit. Like when we watch a race at Charlotte and everybody thinks it’s amazing… not long ago, MTJ had the most dominating performance ever. It makes you appreciate what it took for MTJ to do that.”

There are fans who think Kyle Larson took the poll results too personally. They feel that even if their favorite driver had won, the race itself wasn’t particularly exciting. This suggests that for some fans, the excitement of the race is more important than who wins. In this situation, how the driver wins the race matters just as much, if not more, to the fans. The fan’s comment read, “I think Larson maybe took the poll a little personal? Even if one of my favorite drivers won, that was not an exciting race.” 

Another fan joined in to echo the similar sentiment. They believe that Kyle Larson should be above these polls and not let it affect how he feels about the victory. Larson is on his way to winning the championship, and having one race that did not make fans feel entertained shouldn’t be the reason he gets sad about his win. The fan’s comment stated, “That’s how I took it. He weirdly got his feeling hurt over it. Don’t know why he cares.”

A fan spoke about the poll itself saying, “Sometimes I think we give Gluck’s poll too much weight. It should be fun and lightly informative.” It is important to note that not every NASCAR fan is following Jeff Gluck and many might have a different opinion on the situation. The fan believes that the social media poll should be taken as an additional fun stat instead of something that should bring Kyle Larson down.

Contrary to what most of the community is echoing, this fan enjoyed the race because of Larson’s domination. Saying that it brought back some nostalgic memories, the fan commented, “I thought it was a great race solely because we haven’t seen dominance like that since the 90s! Everyone said they missed old school racing; that was an old school ass whipping!” 

Considering the divide in opinions, did you enjoy the Bristol night race? Share your thoughts in the comments below.