Bristol Regrind - First Look Seems To Have Passed for Bristol 3.0

After watching the Modified and NASCAR Truck Series races with the newly buffered outside line at Bristol Motor Speedway, so far, so good.  At least that's what I'm thinking.

I did not see anything horrid about the racing and the competitors that did get up into the outer racing groove didn't seem to have a huge disadvantage.  It seems that the momentum of the high line was slightly handicapped.

I was quietly expecting something horrid.  But instead, nothing horrid happened.  The vehicles that did get up there didn't seem to get noticeably dumped or freight-trained.  But then again, most laps, everyone was avoiding the outside line like the plague.

No, Bruton Smith did not bring back the Bristol racing of old, but he hasn't done too badly.  Though I think Smith might have done a bad by appearing to placate fans and not involve the actual competitors in this choice of his.  But he's always been a daring sort of man.  And it is what it is, and so far, it isn't the fail I was worried about.

Though, even if Smith is trying to once again sell out the seating in Bristol, the effort might be ill-timed.  Fans are still having to watch their money in this economy or they don't have the time.  Some fans have crossed this event off their bucket list (I haven't yet) and some fans can sit in the comfort of their homes and enjoy the race on TV, on their laptops or smart phones and not fight the traffic.

In time, I think maybe, it will be a sell-out once again.  Maybe.  There will always be enough fans out there to make it work.  But Bristol was changed.  The Bristol that used to be a sell-out, with seats in demand on a waiting list, is GONE.  It's been repaved, made progressive, then reground.

For now, Bristol version 3, is what we have.  Now, for flat short track fun, it's Martinsville!  But don't write off Bristol yet.  We still have to watch the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series to tackle the track surface of Bristol Motor Speedway.  So we'll see what gives after the weekend is said and done, because face it, the drivers in the subsequent series get crazier by notches of sane!

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(That's 3.0, modern era.  I'm not counting back to the dirt days.)