Bristol ... Do you like racing or do you like wrecking?
I saw a great race Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway. I saw great competition. When it came down to the end, it was between our three hottest drivers in the sport — Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson. It will probably be these same three come Homestead in November vying for the championship.
They were going at each other and staging a battle after 450 hard-fought laps. It was riveting to see those three chase each other for those last 50 laps. For me it was exciting, thrilling to watch and fun to call from the TV booth.
Isn’t that what racing is supposed to be like?
In the past at Bristol, when a driver got to another driver, he didn’t race the other guy, he simply wrecked him. Wrecking another driver is not high at all on drivers' list of things to do. They don’t like to race that way.
Now sure, sometimes in the heat of battle you have emotions take over and a driver will dump another driver. We always say, "Well, that’s Bristol."
We were always quick about making excuses. We’d say it was OK to wreck a guy to win on the last lap. We’d look the other way when the bump-and-run would happen on the last lap. Bristol is the one racetrack on the Sprint Cup circuit we probably make the most excuses for drivers and their on-track actions.
It didn’t matter whether you simply wanted to “rattle his cage” as Dale Earnhardt said once or just bump a guy out of the way to win, it’s what fans had come to expect there. Trust me on this, drivers don’t like to have to do that. It’s not what makes our sport great.
What makes our sport great is when a driver can use his skills to out-smart and out-race another guy. Sure we raced each other hard and pushed each other around, but we never wrecked a guy simply to wreck him or to take his spot. It just doesn’t go down that way.
We saw things all day long Sunday that were typical Bristol. You saw Mark Martin run into the back of Kevin Harvick and cause a huge wreck. That’s just part of Bristol. Jeff Burton’s car just quit running. I don’t know why but naturally that happens in a middle of a race, well you are going to have a big wreck. Remember, the joint is only a half-mile around. The reaction time is almost zero. Cars getting into the back of another car and spinning him out is typical short-track racing. Those are just things that are unpredictable but are expected at a place like Bristol. When you go to places like there, Martinsville and Richmond, there is going to be contact. How can you not with 43 big stock cars on small tracks?
I love what I saw yesterday, but in looking at what the fans are saying, they didn’t like it. They say it’s not as good as it used to be there.
Listen to me a second — the R A C I N G is better than it has ever been. Now the W R E C K I N G might not be as much as it used to be.
Heck, back in the day we would run so many laps under caution — wreck after wreck after wreck. Sometimes we didn’t get to hardly race at all. Now you get to see great racing and see strategy play out. It has all the things that make racing interesting and exciting. Today’s racing versus the way we had to do it in the past really is trying to compare apples and oranges.
It kills me to read some of these comments by fans who were unhappy with the race Sunday. Bristol is easily one of the most demanding races to win. It is so challenging both mentally as well as physically.
This is the first time I can remember in such a long time that we have had four different winners in the first four races of the season. On top of all that, look at all the new records that have been set from lead changes on down. These are the most competitive cars and drivers we have had in a very long time. These cats are putting on one heck of a show.
The other comments that really have thrown me for a loop are the ones about the empty grandstands this weekend. Is the racing bad because the grandstands weren’t full Sunday? C’mon, the joint holds upwards of something like 160,000 people. That has absolutely zero affect on what these drivers are doing in those race cars. It’s the economy that is unfortunately creating those empty seats. It's gas prices heading north to $4 that is making it so tough for a family to attend a race. People simply don’t have the disposable income for tickets, hotel rooms, meals and gas right now.
My point is, it certainly isn’t what these drivers are doing on the track. I know good racing when I see it. I’ve been in this sport for more than 40 years and have been a part of good racing both in the car and up in the TV booth. The bottom line is Bristol Motor Speedway is producing great racing. It’s not because the place didn’t sell all its tickets.
We had an awesome race Sunday. We saw some great racing with an exciting finish. We had some big wrecks along the way. We had some flaring tempers and those always add some spice to the day. That’s what Bristol continues to produce. I simply can’t understand why anyone would complain about the type of show these 43 drivers put out there Sunday.
If folks are looking for the old Bristol, where it was all about the wrecking and not about the racing, well the only thing I can suggest is maybe check out your local Demolition Derby. Plus, I just have to say it again, empty grandstands have zero affect on whether the racing is good or not.
What you saw Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway were a bunch of pros showing you how to get around that little high-banked racetrack without having to wreck each other every 10 laps. To me, that’s what this sport is all about.
Oh by the way
You can’t ignore what Kyle Busch has accomplished at Bristol. Since last Fall and now through Sunday he has five wins in a row there.
I’ve had a lot of people ask me about my streak, but his situation is different. I was fortunate to have seven NASCAR Sprint Cup wins in a row there on my way to a record 12 Cup wins at Bristol. Kyle has a truck win, two Nationwide wins and two Cup wins in a row there.
Sure, he owns the joint right now, but I still have the key to the place and I’m just not ready to give it to him yet.
