Possible changes to Bristol Motor Speedway?

[MillsLayne]

Well the fans seemed to like it better look at that crowd. The past few crowds make the track look bad.

That's partly due to two things: bad economy and the fact that they built to hold too many seats. It wasn't going to last forever. There were still some 102,000 fans there yesterday, though, so it wasn't empty by any means, just too many seats.

 

[David24]

Well the crowd attendance is not just due to the type of racing (which I guess people don't like) but also (not all or mostly due to this, but it does have an impact) the economy. I don't know the national average price of gas but it is slowly climbing. It's $4.09 where I am. And I've also read about hotel prices there. In the $300/night range. I know I wouldn't spend that much to go see a race. Think of how many people would also go to the race if gas was an average of $2.50 and the local hotels were $50-$100/night.

 

[4WideRacing]

I like the new Bristol where there are less wrecks and more passing but I'm okay with it going back to how it was just for the tradition of racing at Bristol!

 

[The Captain]

While I think the racing at Bristol is actually watchable again since the repave, I wouldn't shed a tear if Bruton took out the progressive corners and put the high banks back in.

 

[zaw24fan]

I guess I'll be the first (and possibly the only) one to say that I am a HUGE fan of this possible revert-back.

Old Bristol is the way Bristol should be. If a short track like Bristol was made to have multi-groove racing, they wouldn't have built it at only just over a half mile. Instead, they would have made another Atlanta, or Charlotte, or Texas.

In my absolute honest opinion, Bristol used to be textbook short track racing before the August 2007 race. Then when they made the progressive banking, it lost most of that textbook style. I will also be the first to say I am an avid hater of new Bristol. Didn't like it in the August 2007 race and never really have come to like it that much better. I thought last year's August race was probably the best one on new Bristol and gave me hope that the racing was getting better. This race yesterday completely dashed those hopes.

While there was excellent green-flag racing yesterday... That's not Bristol-esque. I don't see Bristol as a track where green flag runs dominate the race. I don't like absolute wreckfests, but I also do not like these long green flag runs like yesterday.

Just my $0.02.

 

[MattSRD28]

I'm sort of confused by this whole issue. I fully understand the arguments on both sides related to Bristol itself.

Where I lose it is when I think of a track like Indianapolis Raceway Park, now called Lucas Oil Raceway. That's a short track that has had progressive banking for years upon decades. When it was taken off the Nationwide & Truck schedules this year, people cried out to not take a short track with great racing away. Same sort of phenomenon happened with Irwindale Speedway. Track has progressive banking in the corners, cars scatter in the turns going high, low, 3-wide, etc and people seem to really like it. Nobody complains that racing at IRP or Irwindale isn't short track racing.

So I remain confused as to why the progressive banking kind of racing with cars going 3-4 wide in the corners is apparently only a problem at Bristol? The only theory I can come up with is that neither IRP or Irwindale were changed after a decade or so of a certain style of racing to become what people know them to be today like Bristol was. That people of an individual market, Bristol, became very used to the product & very attached to it, and then had that taken away and replaced by a different product, sparking discontent. It's not that the new product is bad. It's just not the old familiar product. And, it seems to not be the same sort of draw that the old product was.

Am I at least in the right ballpark with that analysis?

If I am, then Bruton needs to get rid of the progressive banking right now immediately ASAP. He must do what the customer base there is telling him they demand, or they will not buy his product. All business walk the line between what product the business wants to deliver, and what product the customers will & won't buy. Often times the more vocal customers will drone out the others and make it seem to the business like the business should change when it really shouldn't, but this doesn't seem to be one of those times. This appears to be one of those rare cases when the customer base appears to be the ones who are correct, and the business itself in the wrong in terms of direction for the future.

It's rare, but it does happen. Saw this with Disneyland about 10 years ago when they started to cut costs and the absurd & naked cheapness denigrated the product as a whole and drove people away. After Disney made changes, and proved their willingness to spend money & lost of it, they're seeing record crowds again. Happens that way sometimes. Maybe it'll happen at Bristol too?

 

[The Captain]

That seems like a good assessment to me. We all came to know and love the bump and grind way of getting around Bristol, and it seems like somewhat of a letdown when drivers are running and passing all over the place. It's too clean. Bristol has become known for it's physical racing and the commercials they run still try to sell it that way. I say bring back the high banks.

 

[Dr. Kstar]

I'm sort of confused by this whole issue. I fully understand the arguments on both sides related to Bristol itself.

Where I lose it is when I think of a track like Indianapolis Raceway Park, now called Lucas Oil Raceway. That's a short track that has had progressive banking for years upon decades. When it was taken off the Nationwide & Truck schedules this year, people cried out to not take a short track with great racing away. Same sort of phenomenon happened with Irwindale Speedway. Track has progressive banking in the corners, cars scatter in the turns going high, low, 3-wide, etc and people seem to really like it. Nobody complains that racing at IRP or Irwindale isn't short track racing.

So I remain confused as to why the progressive banking kind of racing with cars going 3-4 wide in the corners is apparently only a problem at Bristol? The only theory I can come up with is that neither IRP or Irwindale were changed after a decade or so of a certain style of racing to become what people know them to be today like Bristol was. That people of an individual market, Bristol, became very used to the product & very attached to it, and then had that taken away and replaced by a different product, sparking discontent. It's not that the new product is bad. It's just not the old familiar product. And, it seems to not be the same sort of draw that the old product was.

Am I at least in the right ballpark with that analysis?

If I am, then Bruton needs to get rid of the progressive banking right now immediately ASAP. He must do what the customer base there is telling him they demand, or they will not buy his product. All business walk the line between what product the business wants to deliver, and what product the customers will & won't buy. Often times the more vocal customers will drone out the others and make it seem to the business like the business should change when it really shouldn't, but this doesn't seem to be one of those times. This appears to be one of those rare cases when the customer base appears to be the ones who are correct, and the business itself in the wrong in terms of direction for the future.

It's rare, but it does happen. Saw this with Disneyland about 10 years ago when they started to cut costs and the absurd & naked cheapness denigrated the product as a whole and drove people away. After Disney made changes, and proved their willingness to spend money & lost of it, they're seeing record crowds again. Happens that way sometimes. Maybe it'll happen at Bristol too?

I honestly see where your coming from, but there are differences. IRP and Irwindale both had racing where you needed to use up your car by the end to be in a position to win. The way the current Bristol is, you can just ride around 400 laps and then race. Not to mention, those tracks aren't nearly as high-banked as Bristol. Maybe that is a factor that changes the racing. All I know is that if they were to change it back, I'd try to bring everyone to the race. I'd rather watch a California or Kansas race rather then Bristol. That isn't how it should be. No matter how little wrecks, Bristol was always awesome. The same can't be said now.

 

[The Captain]

I'd rather watch a California or Kansas race rather then Bristol. .

 

[Dr. Kstar]

I was talking about the way it is now. If they change it back it would be way better.

 

[TJBartel]

This coupled with the move to eliminate the tandom drafts are prrof that most NASCAR "fans" don't care about actual "racing", they want to see wrecking and knocking the guy in front of you out of the way.
I will be unpopular here(I don't care about that) but any idiot can knock the guy in front of you out of the way, it takes skill to make a clean pass by outdriving the guy in front.
But, what motivates Bruton the most isn't "racing" its making money by putting the most a$$es in the seats.

 

[The Captain]

This coupled with the move to eliminate the tandom drafts are prrof that most NASCAR "fans" don't care about actual "racing", they want to see wrecking and knocking the guy in front of you out of the way.
I will be unpopular here(I don't care about that) but any idiot can knock the guy in front of you out of the way, it takes skill to make a clean pass by outdriving the guy in front.
But, what motivates Bruton the most isn't "racing" its making money by putting the most a$$es in the seats.

Making money and putting rear ends in seats are what keep tracks alive and on the schedule. No matter how popular your track is, you don't sacrifice butts in seats just because you call the shots. Bristol has a reputation of being very friendly to its fans. I wouldn't be shocked to see them make some kind of change to draw people back.

 

[Bgartz29]

The problem I have with this surface is they really didn't give two racing grooves, they just moved the one groove up 2 lanes. If there were two grooves, you wouldn't need 40 laps and a pick to pass someone. You would just move down set the person up for a couple of laps and make your move, not try and keep your car from wrecking hoping you are clear for an entire fuel run. So since there isn't two lanes now, just change it back or add a tick more banking on the bottom lane so people can pass more effectively.

 

[TJBartel]

Making money and putting rear ends in seats are what keep tracks alive and on the schedule. No matter how popular your track is, you don't sacrifice butts in seats just because you call the shots. Bristol has a reputation of being very friendly to its fans. I wouldn't be shocked to see them make some kind of change to draw people back.

True enough mostly. And the "fans" aren't always looking for close hard nosed photo-finish racing or North Carolina for example would still be on the schedule. Bruton does change tracks/dates to his different venues for reasons other than selling out the seats, as does NASCAR on occasion. They like some markets better than others.
We'll see what Bruton does, but it can't be anything as extreme as last time if he is going to be ready for the August race.

 

[Ryan597]

I'm totally for this change.

Bristol is supposed to be about beatin' and bangin' and using your fenders to pass someone (not necessarily wreck them). That's what it was MADE for. The banking change made it turn into something it was not supposed to be, and on Sunday that was lets have long green flag runs and take 50 laps to pass one car. If they really wanted long green flag runs, then they should've built another Michigan or Auto Club. The builders of the track wanted it to be good ol' short track racing (like I mentioned). But when you change something into something it wasn't intended for, it dosen't work out. It just isn't the same.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

 

[MattSRD28]

True enough mostly. And the "fans" aren't always looking for close hard nosed photo-finish racing or North Carolina for example would still be on the schedule. Bruton does change tracks/dates to his different venues for reasons other than selling out the seats, as does NASCAR on occasion. They like some markets better than others.
We'll see what Bruton does, but it can't be anything as extreme as last time if he is going to be ready for the August race.

Unless my memory has gone haywire, all the changes & repaving done previously was done between the spring & fall races.

 

[FloridaFan88]

The progressive banking repave was done between March 2007 and August 2007, so SMI should be able to do the opposite in the same amount of time.

 

[WinstonCup426]

This coupled with the move to eliminate the tandom drafts are prrof that most NASCAR "fans" don't care about actual "racing", they want to see wrecking and knocking the guy in front of you out of the way.
I will be unpopular here(I don't care about that) but any idiot can knock the guy in front of you out of the way, it takes skill to make a clean pass by outdriving the guy in front.
But, what motivates Bruton the most isn't "racing" its making money by putting the most a$$es in the seats.

It's not even so much the lack of bumping that people have a problem with as much as that it's dang near impossible to pass on the inside anymore. What was done to create close, equal, competitive racing only succeeded in giving one line a huge advantage.

 

[Markfan]

This coupled with the move to eliminate the tandom drafts are prrof that most NASCAR "fans" don't care about actual "racing", they want to see wrecking and knocking the guy in front of you out of the way.

A lot of people didn't feel that tandems were racing, not to mention that they caused way more wrecks per race than what was normal at superspeedways. Bristol Motor Speedway was also a lot more exciting pre-2007, when rough-housing made the course so unique. You don't have to wreck someone in order to push them out of the way.

 

[nokia7514]

I hope it changes in miss the old Bristol.