Bristol Motor Speedway once earned its reputation as “The Last Great Colosseum” for its gladiatorial racing spectacle. Fans expected beating and banging, bump and run, along with flaring tempers.  However, Sunday’s Food City 500 delivered something drastically different. Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon didn’t mince words in the post-race press conference: “I am a little disappointed in today with the tire, I’ll be honest. There was no fall-off and no wear.”

The four-time champion’s assessment echoed throughout social media. Fans unloaded their frustrations about a Bristol race that failed to deliver the expected intensity. Gordon admitted his preference for Sunday’s product over last year’s extreme tire wear. Yet he remained “disappointed to see how many—how few cautions and how little fall-off there was today.” Despite Larson’s dominant run, it was clear that Gordon wasn’t content with the racing product NASCAR put on at the Thunder Valley.

Even Jeff Gluck’s “Was it a good race?” poll, for the time being, has notched up a staggering result. 80.7% of respondents answered “No.” This marks one of the most negative responses for any Bristol race in recent memory. The numbers tell the story clearly. There were only four lead changes in total. Kyle Larson led 411 of 500 laps. The NASCAR race featured what today’s short track critics fear most—lack of passing opportunities.

At the heart of the controversy lies an uncomfortable truth. NASCAR’s Next Gen car continues to struggle on short tracks. The Bristol configuration particularly exposes its flaws. The car’s aerodynamic package creates problems. Goodyear’s inconsistent tire compounds make it worse. Well, NASCAR did have some promise with its option tires to try and improve the short-track package, but that experiment is now out of the window.

So, without any positive changes and stale short-track racing, fans are fuming with how the traditional venues are now losing their luster due to NASCAR’s newest invention.

Fans Unleash Their Frustrations

“It took basically the entire race for the 24 to come from 26th to close to the top 5. That’s unacceptable,” posted one fan, referring to William Byron’s painstaking march through the field. The numbers validate this frustration. Byron’s #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet qualified 26th. He only managed to finish 6th despite having one of the faster cars. The inability to pass efficiently has become a hallmark of the Next Gen era at short tracks. Cars with nearly identical specifications struggle to find advantages over competitors. The aero packages make passing in traffic extremely difficult.

The tire wear issue proved equally troubling. “First stage I think they said Larson was running about two-tenths of a second slower than his first few laps on 100+ lap tires, that is beyond unacceptable,” noted another fan. This observation aligns with Gordon’s post-race assessment about minimal fall-off. Last spring’s Bristol race featured extreme tire wear. The tires on their cars corded after 40-50 lap runs, racing was unbearable. So much so that NASCAR had to step in and give extra sets of tires for teams to complete the race. Although that was a little extreme, fans enjoyed that race, and they didn’t even mind Denny Hamlin winning it.

Racing enthusiasts also rejected a common defense about the race. Some suggest “there was a lot of racing through the field” compensated for the lack of competition up front. One fan articulated this perfectly: “If there’s no real chance that the top 5 or top 10 will change in a significant way, what’s the point of the battle for P20?” Well, there wasn’t a lot of racing that happened on the racetrack, perhaps which is why the cameras only focused on Larson and Hamlin, who somewhat made the racing exciting.

Many longtime NASCAR followers have reluctantly accepted Bristol’s transformation. “Ever since the reconfiguration, 2012 night race, 2020 June race and 2021 night race are the exceptions and not the norm,” reflected one fan. They acknowledge that today’s Bristol differs fundamentally from its pre-2007 configuration. However, the deeper issue may lie with the car itself. Another fan directly addressed the industry: “It’s because you couldn’t pass, and there was almost no tire wear. This car is way too easy to drive… When everyone is running the same speed, it is borderline impossible to pass.” This gets to the heart of NASCAR’s short-track dilemma. Martinsville hasn’t been great, which is why they brought in the option tires, and not to forget, Richmond Raceway has already lost one of its dates on the NASCAR calendar.

Given NASCAR’s band-aid solution, it seems as if the short track races are now being set up to be a failure. With no entertainment or thrilling value, the governing body might be forced into finding other venues and tracks. We already have the Chicago Street Race, along with an international race in Mexico, on the schedule. If the state of short-track racing doesn’t change for good, we might see more road course races shadow the traditional short-track circuits.