In late March, the NASCAR Cup Series raced on dirt for the first time in a half a century. And while NASCAR may not have spent more time and effort marketing the Bristol Dirt Race than the Daytona 500, it surely appeared that they were merely counting down the days between Michael McDowell’s race-saving victory at Daytona and the green flag at Bristol which, as it turned out, was delayed by just over 24 hours, give or take.
The Camping World Truck Series also ran at Bristol on the dirt. (The series had run on the dirt at Eldora from 2013-2019.) While both series got in some practice, the mud caused by inclement weather forced NASCAR to halt the Trucks first qualifying heat races after one lap. Subsequent rain forced the cancellation of the rest of the qualifying heat races for both the Trucks and Cup race. This immediately led to people ridiculing NASCAR for attempting to bring dirt racing to the big stage.
After only one competitive lap!
But NASCAR persevered and both the Truck and Cup races were held, in their entirety, on Monday afternoon.
So what is my opinion on NASCAR and dirt racing for the Cup race? I don’t have one…and neither should you…and neither should anyone else. NASCAR has already announced they will return to the dirt at Bristol in 2022 (contingent, of course, that there will be a NASCAR by that point – but that’s a conspiracy theory we can discuss later). Perhaps when the checkered flag flies on the SECOND Cup race on dirt we can take stock of just how well the concept has worked out.
Until then, we have had ONE Cup race since 1970. To suggest that one race should be a make-or-break situation for a “genre” is ludicrous. Sadly, it’s not out of place in our modern-day society where, all too often, we are one and done with things. To do so, however, would be robbing NASCAR fans, present and future, of an opportunity to see a style of racing that hasn’t been seen at NASCAR’s top level in half a century.
If, in 2026, we’ve seen a string of boring dirt races, then maybe we revisit the idea of Cup cars on dirt. For now, we can simply say whether we enjoyed the 2021 Bristol Dirt Race. And, as in so many cases, there were things I liked and things I didn’t.
To get the negative out of the way, I didn’t particularly like yet another instance where a Cup driver drove away from the field in the Truck Series. Despite some online analysts assume we only get upset when the Cup driver in question is Kyle Busch (certainly not the first time I’ve been told what I must think on an issue by some random person on social media, sadly, certainly not the last), I was not happy to see Martin Truex, Jr. (a guy I do like when it comes to the Cup series) completely dominate the race. This is a guy with two Truck starts, the second one coming fifteen years ago and it’s not even close. Sorry NASCAR but you stopped being able to convince me that Cup guys are running the same equipment as the series regulars a long time ago. Truex’s dominance was just a pretty good way to make the Truck regulars in the field look bad but that seems to be a trend in NASCAR.
But there were some highlights to be had. Midway through the second stage of the Cup race, there was a great battle with no fewer that five drivers within a second of each other at the front of the field. Daniel Suarez led a substantial portion of the midway of the race and Ryan Newman looked like he might have a shot at the win. This was not “Okay, wait for a caution to bunch up the field and make it competitive for a half lap before the leader takes off” like we’ve seen for years on the mile and a halfs. There were definitely a lot of competitive moments throughout the course of the race.
Despite a few early incidents (including one that took out dirt track favourites Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell), the Bristol Dirt Race did not turn into the wreckfest that I feared it might. Despite their relative inexperience, the Cup drivers managed to hang on to their cars and adapted well to the new dirt environment. I think that definitely added to the enjoyment of the race because, after a 24 hour delay, I think it would have killed a lot of long-awaited momentum if the race had become a stop-and-go affair.
While my Dad was hoping Chase Elliott would win and I would have added names like the Ryans (Newman and Blaney) or the RCR teammates of Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick, my Mom’s driver, Joey Logano, got the historic first win on the dirt at Bristol. It was great to see my Mom get excited about a NASCAR race.
As for the future of the Bristol Dirt Race, as more than one person said, NASCAR needs to take a look at what worked and what didn’t and incorporate that analysis into the 2022 race.
I’m sure there are those out there with a lot more technical knowledge who can tell me what needs to be changed from that standpoint. For me, it was all about the timing – and I understand that mother nature and not NASCAR forced the change from Sunday to Monday but if you’re going to reschedule to a weekday, you have to put some thought into that change.
Now I get that the Truck Series is mostly an afterthought except for Cup drivers wanting to get in some extra practice and have a spotlight shined seemingly solely on them. So, I understand putting the Camping World Truck Series race at Bristol on at noon. Only die-hard, watch everything from practice to qualifying and every competitive lap fans like myself are going to tune in, anyways, so why not just put it wherever there’s an open spot? What I could not understand, however, was, if the race had to be delayed until Monday – which was out of NASCAR’s hands – why would you schedule it for 4:00 in the afternoon?
And don’t give me this “Well, COVID! Everyone is working from home anyways!” As someone who has been working from home the last going-on-14 months, I ended up having to work through the first hour of the race and I’m guessing a lot of others were in the same boat. It’s fine to say that people can have the race on while they’re working but when it comes to choosing between concentrating on the job that pays the bills and a race, most people know which choice they had to make.
Bristol has lights. (There is a reason why the Bristol Night Race is a thing.) Why not push it back until 7 p.m. Give people a chance to get home (or log off for the day), get dinner at least ready, and then be able to sit down in front of the TV and enjoy a NASCAR race free of most distractions.
But that’s not a dirt-race-specific issue. Meanwhile, I am looking forward to seeing the Cup cars return to dirt at Bristol in 2022 and the trucks returning to dirt in Knoxville later on this season.
johnmilner.ca 