NASCAR Cup Series

Larry Mac breaks down Sunday's race at Bristol Motor Speedway

Published Apr. 20, 2015 5:00 p.m. ET

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Larry McReynolds

Ever since they reconfigured the racing surface at Bristol Motor Speedway a number of years ago and then tried to grind the top of the track, I just don't think the fans have fully embraced those changes. Obviously, we aren't seeing a whole lot of drivers bump each other and spin each other out. They aren't turning each other sideways or doing the bump-and-run.

I've always felt that good racing is side-by-side racing, but evidently that's not what the fans have been looking for. I believe what we saw Sunday afternoon and then again Sunday night at Bristol Motor Speedway gave fans on both sides of the spectrum what they there looking for. Not only did we have great side-by-side racing through the event all through the field, but we also had drivers getting impatient with each other and moving folks out of the way.

I also want to take a moment to tip my hat to everyone involved with that race Sunday. From NASCAR, to the drivers, their teams, the broadcast group and even the fans, we didn't see anyone giving up.

From the point when the race was to start Sunday afternoon, to the interruptions by Mother Nature, to finally when we saw the checkered flag fall, we were closing in on an event that lasted almost 10 hours. It would have been easy to say, "Let's wait until tomorrow," but everyone wanted to finish what we started Sunday, and it's commendable to everyone involved that we stuck with it.

It would have been easy to simply shoot for the halfway mark of the race -- which makes it an official race -- and pack it in when the weather turned sour again. Not only did we get all 500 laps in, but we even went into overtime and ran 11 more before Matt Kenseth won his first race of the season. He broke a 51-race winless streak.

The other thing I liked about Bristol was similar to last year when we had some names up there in the finishing order that we don't always see up front each week. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the top finishing Ford in fourth. Tony Stewart got a much-needed top-10 finish with a sixth-place performance. Justin Allgaier, Danica Patrick and Austin Dillon rounded out the top 10,  finishing eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively.

One of the many things I love about racing at Bristol Motor Speedway is that it has become pretty unpredictable. Ironically, all three of the drivers who have had top-10 finishes in 2015 going into Bristol saw their streaks end. While Kevin Harvick led the most laps again, he got caught up in a wreck and finished a disappointing 38th. Joey Logano got collected in his teammate Brad Keselowski's wreck very early in the race and his streak also ended with a 40th-place finish. Martin Truex Jr. was the third one who saw his top-10 streak end, finishing 29th and some seven laps down.

I think Darrell Waltrip summed it up the best by saying Bristol Motor Speedway always seems to have the knack for not only starting streaks, but ending them as well. 

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