Bruton Is Scraping Down The Outside Line of Bristol

Today (4/25/12) Bruton Smith had announced what they're doing to Bristol's track surface.  The kludge being applied to the mini-superspeedway will be focused on the outside line in the corners.

-Bruton Smith, in a radio press conference noted that the cars coming off the outside line had an advantage in the last event held there and from what he described, he wants to remove that advantage.  To do that, he's going to take off some of the angle in the top groove of this progressive banked track in the corners so that the cars that end up there don't have more banking than the cars in the middle or lower grooves.

By removing the "advantage" that, in Smith's eyes, will "mix it up."

This change is a result of a survey that Bruton Smith gave fans, and the fans said they wanted more bumper to bumper racing.  But their own survey indicated that around 40% of the survey takers wanted change, so change it is!  The minority has spoken.

But even so, Smith indicates that ticket sales have increased, (tripled) since they announced a change will be made to the track.  I wonder how large a number that is... is that the now sold 3 versus 1 ticket?  Snark!

His tackling the track surface like this is in response to what he (Smith) believes are that fans want more wrecks.  So he's catering to them.  I'm sure the hard core fan is aghast to that premise.  Hell, if he wants to give that demographic of fans more wrecks, why not install a figure-8 track in the middle of the place?  Everyone will have a great seat for that one!!!

But despite the long-term, hard-core fan not liking the idea of wrecks, other fans, the casual fans, light up and enjoy them.  I've been in sports bars and when NASCAR comes on one of the tubes and they show wrecks, the crowd gets animated.

And that kind of attention from the casual fan is hard to ignore because of the potential of numbers that the casual fan can represent.  At the end of the day, the dollar is the bottom line, no matte what hard-core, long-time fans may worry about.

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So applying this kludge is going to eliminate the third, outside lane of racing, forcing racers to use the inside or middle lines.

We'll see how that goes.

This change will put you in one of two groups.  Those who like it and those who don't.  But once Smith jumped the shark with the 2007 change, the original track was lost forever, and so too, the spirit of the races at Bristol.  Bruton is NOT bringing back the old configuration.  He's adapting the newest or best approach he thinks will work.  Before we condemn him, remember, he does have a knack for finding what works and making it happen.

Well see how things pan out at the next event at the bullring.

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