Bristol Spring Race Pre - Race Thread

StandOnIt

StandOnIt

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36 Cup cars for Bristol. 15-Grala 16-Allmendinger

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So all the people who hated it on dirt and on Easter are going this weekend right and it won't be a ghost town? Or were "fans" talking out their rears like usual.
 
kkfan91 said:
So all the people who hated it on dirt and on Easter are going this weekend right and it won't be a ghost town? Or were "fans" talking out their rears like usual.
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How does not going to the race make me not a real fan? I'm happy it isn't on dirt and will be watching it on TV. I could care less how many people are in the stands. NASCAR makes their money on TV, not on people going to the race.
 
i wish they would go back to track testing day of the race or even Sat.
 
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Daytripper said:
How does not going to the race make me not a real fan? I'm happy it isn't on dirt and will be watching it on TV. I could care less how many people are in the stands. NASCAR makes their money on TV, not on people going to the race.
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The attendance flex is a weird one I’ve always thought. I particularly didn’t care for Cup on dirt but if I had the opportunity I’d still have gone and wish I could go this Sunday. Racing at Bristol is cool, I personally thought it was a mistake to take one of those away for a Hail Mary attempt. Fans in the stands really have no bearing on my viewing pleasure, Bristol is one of my favorite stops on the calendar regardless if 10 fans show up or 100,000.
 
kkfan91 said:
So all the people who hated it on dirt and on Easter are going this weekend right and it won't be a ghost town? Or were "fans" talking out their rears like usual.
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Bristol on dirt was not to my liking so I’m glad we’re back to racing the way it oughta be. Why should anyone who preferred concrete to dirt feel obligated to attend the race in person?
 
Daytripper said:
How does not going to the race make me not a real fan? I'm happy it isn't on dirt and will be watching it on TV. I could care less how many people are in the stands. NASCAR makes their money on TV, not on people going to the race.
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I agree. The track may get 30k in fans but I’ll be glued to my TV watching it
 
Brentford said:
If Bristol was my home track, I’d 100% go to both races, dirt or not. Heck, if Texas was my home track, I’d go. I go for the race experience of being there in person. I’ve witnessed a few boring races at Kansas, but I still have no hesitation going there year after year.
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If I didn’t have to go to Calgary for work I’d be there. That’s Bristol’s biggest issue, it’s pretty damn far from any city. Awesome place, but it’s remote as hell
 
Mispeedway15 said:
If I didn’t have to go to Calgary for work I’d be there. That’s Bristol’s biggest issue, it’s pretty damn far from any city. Awesome place, but it’s remote as hell
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For sure! Probably one of the most isolated tracks, maybe behind Watkins Glen.
 
Magicmiler said:
View attachment 77323Middle of Nowhere...
9 Miles from Downtown Bristol Va/Tn.
The entire area is accessible within 10 minutes..
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How large do you think the city of Bristol is? When you compare the tracks location within proximity to a major city, it’s definitely at a disadvantage. Knoxville is hardly considered a big city when you compare it to many of the other cities near a NASCAR track.
 
Brentford said:
How large do you think the city of Bristol is? When you compare the tracks location within proximity to a major city, it’s definitely at a disadv Cities...antage. Knoxville is hardly considered a big city when you compare it to many of the other cities near a NASCAR track.
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I know how big Bristol Va/Tn is.. How was it on your last trip to BMS?
Loudon ,Watkins Glen and Pocono.are definitely in the middle of nowhere. I go to a race venue to be at the track, not hobnob at the BIG cities... That is what Vacations are for...If that's your thing..
 
Magicmiler said:
I know how big Bristol Va/Tn is.. How was it on your last trip to BMS?
Loudon ,Watkins Glen and Pocono.are definitely in the middle of nowhere. I go to a race venue to be at the track, not hobnob at the BIG cities... That is what Vacations are for...If that's your thing..
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Yeah, I had forgot about Pocono. That’s definitely the middle of nowhere. Loudon is less than an hour from the Boston metro, so I wouldn’t necessarily include that track. Unfortunately, a lot of people have to save money just to buy a race ticket. If they can’t make it a day trip, they can’t afford it.

My trip to Bristol was forever ago, but it has a memory that I’ll never forget. We had to park like a mile away. On our walk to the track, my Dad realized he didn’t have our tickets and we feared he had dropped them on the walk. We didn’t
realize until we were near the track. We walked back to our car, hoping to actually find them on the ground, but figuring someone already snatched them. Well, we got stopped by a guy halfway to our car and he asked if we lost our tickets. To our amazement, he had seen them and picked them up for us. Seriously restored my faith in humanity, at least for that moment. Bristol is one of the tracks that I’d most definitely like to visit again. It’d definitely be a vacation as it’s a 15 hour drive from my location.
 
Brentford said:
Yeah, I had forgot about Pocono. That’s definitely the middle of nowhere. Loudon is less than an hour from the Boston metro, so I wouldn’t necessarily include that track. Unfortunately, a lot of people have to save money just to buy a race ticket. If they can’t make it a day trip, they can’t afford it.

My trip to Bristol was forever ago, but it has a memory that I’ll never forget. We had to park like a mile away. On our walk to the track, my Dad realized he didn’t have our tickets and we feared he had dropped them on the walk. We didn’t
realize until we were near the track. We walked back to our car, hoping to actually find them on the ground, but figuring someone already snatched them. Well, we got stopped by a guy halfway to our car and he asked if we lost our tickets. To our amazement, he had seen them and picked them up for us. Seriously restored my faith in humanity, at least for that moment. Bristol is one of the tracks that I’d most definitely like to visit again. It’d definitely be a vacation as it’s a 15 hour drive from my location.
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Bristol is amazing in person. Even the locals I've met.
 

Goodyear Fast Facts: Bristol​

NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 5 – 500 laps / 266.5 miles Bristol Motor Speedway (0.533-mile oval) – Bristol, Tenn.
Fast Facts for March 16-17, 2024

Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Speedway Radials

Set limits: Cup: 1 set for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 10 sets for the race (9 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying)

Tire Codes: Left-side — D-5170; Right-side — D-5206

Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,254 mm (88.74 in.); Right-side — 2,276 mm (89.61 in.)

Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 16 psi; Left Rear — 18 psi; Right Front — 46 psi; Right Rear — 44 psi

Storyline – Spring Bristol back on concrete ground: After three years of running the spring race at Bristol Motor Speedway on a dirt surface, NASCAR returns to the early-season event being on the concrete in 2024. As the sport continues to make adjustments with this Next Gen car, Goodyear took a step at Bristol last September to introduce more wear and get more lap-time fall-off. Tuning a tire set-up to the relatively smooth concrete track surface is a difficult challenge. Designing a tire with more fall-off improves the racing by increasing passing and bringing tire management into play as drivers that are easier on their tires early in a run will gain track position later in that run.

“When we race on a concrete surface, certainly one of our goals is getting a tire to wear,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “Concrete, like we have at Bristol this weekend, is generally a relatively smooth surface and does not promote a lot of wear. We took a step with our right-side tire last fall at Bristol with a compound change, and we return on that set-up for this race. Tire wear is good for racing because it leads to lap-time fall-off and more passing throughout a run.”

Notes – Cup returns to Bristol on fall ’23 tire set-up: Being on 18-inch bead diameter tires, NASCAR Cup teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Craftsman Truck Series at Bristol this weekend . . . this is the same left-side tire code Cup teams have run on the Bristol concrete since September 2022 . . . this right-side tire code was added to the Bristol set-up last September . . . while this right-side tire code is unique to Bristol, Cup teams are scheduled to run this left-side code at Dover in April . . . with this 18-inch tire, and its lower profile sidewall, NASCAR Cup cars do not run inner liners in any of their tires.

Wet Weather Tires – Goodyear bringing wet weather tires to Bristol for first time: Goodyear will bring its 18-inch wet weather radial tires to Bristol for the NASCAR Cup cars, should NASCAR determine that conditions warrant . . . NASCAR held a test with Cup cars at Bristol on February 8 to assess the feasibility of running in wet conditions on the fast, high-banked short track . . . Cup teams will have a maximum of 4 sets of wet weather tires for the event . . .

NASCAR Cup teams last ran a wet weather tire in competition at the Chicago street course last July, and last ran it on a short track in the All-Star race at North Wilkesboro last May . . . in addition to the obvious difference of a tread pattern versus Goodyear’s dry weather “slick” tires, the “Goodyear” and “Eagle” lettering on the sidewalls of the wet weather tires is white, not the standard yellow.
 
Mispeedway15 said:
That’s Bristol’s biggest issue, it’s pretty damn far from any city.
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Population of Bristol TN / VA is 44K. That bigger than Martinsville or Darlington / Florence. Both of the smaller cities have major hotel and restaurant chains, so I assume Bristol does too. Bristol also has easy access to kick-ass whitewater rafting and outdoor activities.

I usually stay in Asheville, about 90 minutes south, double lane the whole way and mostly interstate. The hotels don't get marked up much and there's a ton of other stuff to do. I don't mind a bit of a drive after the race, and all I need is a clean, quiet room and some decent food.
 
Mispeedway15 said:
If I didn’t have to go to Calgary for work I’d be there. That’s Bristol’s biggest issue, it’s pretty damn far from any city. Awesome place, but it’s remote as hell
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Bristol is like 15 min from Johnson City TN which is where Eastern Tennessee State is so its a college town full of restaurants, bars, two krogers, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express and a Target. and when I went to Bristol it might have been me but it didnt seem like the track itself was in the middle of nowhere, maybe its where I parked.
 
Kyle Busch (8 Bristol wins) was asked about the outcome between him and Dale Earnhardt (9 Bristol wins) in a theoretical 10 lap race at Bristol.

his answer
 
Bristol dirt viewership was pretty good in 2022 but dropped quite a bit last year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this weekend be up significantly. I could similarly see a decent attendance bump over the last non-COVID spring concrete races there in 2019. I think the fact that it was gone for a while will probably rejuvenate interest at least for a few years.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Bristol dirt viewership was pretty good in 2022 but dropped quite a bit last year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this weekend be up significantly. I could similarly see a decent attendance bump over the last non-COVID spring concrete races there in 2019. I think the fact that it was gone for a while will probably rejuvenate interest at least for a few years.
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Bristol was 4.0 million in 22 and 3.5 million in 23 going up against the Masters at 12 million.
 
StandOnIt said:
Bristol was 4.0 million in 22 and 3.5 million in 23 going up against the Masters at 12 million.
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It was a Sunday night race; the race started pretty much a few minutes after the final round ended so they didn’t compete much at all.
 
According to the Ticketmaster site that handles their ticket sales, it looks like sales are quite a bit better than that 2019 race. The front stretch and turns should look pretty good, the backstretch will be sparse. At least they've done more advertising than in recent years in the Knoxville area.
 
2 Sweet said:
Yeah, because it's basically a ripoff of the Napa scheme Chase ran from 2019-20. It was adopted by the JRM 9 car when Gragson was there, and apparently it followed him to SHR.
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oh well I meant the color choice was very clean, popped nicely imo
 
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