Even after the NASCAR Cup race at the Bristol Motor Speedway is over, it is still dividing people. However, the general consensus is that not many are fond of racing on the dirt. Bubba Wallace’s spotter Freddie Kraft was one of the biggest opponents of this. In a recent podcast, he highlighted some of the biggest reasons why running NASCAR cars on dirt, is a mistake.
He said, “The fact of the matter is, these cars, they don’t belong on dirt. These things are a 1000 pounds heavier than any other dirt car in the world. We’re running a 150 laps at least, more than any other dirt races in the world. The longest dirt race I can think of, is the World 100. We’re talking 100s of laps.
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He added, “If you go to any dirt race, whether its in Outlaws, USAC Midgets, majority of the dirt races are somewhere between 35 and 50 laps. We’re out here running 250 laps with a car that’s not made to run on dirt.”
Many others in the NASCAR community agreed with Kraft
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Of course, Kraft is not the only one who has that opinion. Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kyle Busch, Rodney Childers, and many others were not happy about racing on the Bristol dirt. Last year, before its long-anticipated return, the prospect of dirt racing met a fair bit of resistance. One of them was the legendary Richard Petty, who called it ‘unprofessional’ and dubbed it a step backward.
Admittedly, the likes of Earnhardt Jr and Childers were more upset about racing on an Easter weekend. They did have a point, because Easter is traditionally a holiday and a time to spend with family.
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However, NASCAR wanted to capitalize on this fact and try to maximize TV audiences. Suffice to say, the experiment worked wonders, when reports emerged that Fox Sports earned 4.007 million viewers.