Posted on 03/26/2021 8:39:31 AM PDT by Kaslin
The dirt track spectacle hearkens back to the origins of NASCAR — moonshine runners attempting to outrun the law in rural Appalachia.
Stock car racing is about to get very dirty. On Sunday, NASCAR’s Cup series will race on a dirt track created at the famed Bristol Motor Speedway.
While the sport’s truck series ran one dirt race a year from 2013 to 2019 (lockdowns canceled last year’s event), Sunday’s feature represents the first time the sport’s premier series has raced on dirt since September 1970 — a race won by stock car racing’s “king,” Richard Petty.
The race this coming weekend, as well as a series of invitational races run last week as a precursor to Sunday’s big show, required an extensive transformation of Bristol Motor Speedway. Over several weeks, workers laid more than 2,000 truckfuls of dirt over the track’s usual concrete surface (with a 2-3 inch layer of sawdust separating the soil and clay from the concrete).
The dirt race could give new life to an event, and a sport, suffering from existential questions well before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Two years ago, this same March event at Bristol featured wide swathes of empty seats for reasons having nothing to do with social distancing.
The novelty of a dirt track race — and its frequent promotion on NASCAR’s network partner Fox — has prompted newfound interest in this weekend’s event. Tickets for Sunday’s race sold out, albeit at lower capacity due to the pandemic, in early January.
The return of dirt racing prompted NASCAR to publish a primer and glossary about dirt racing. Unlike most paved tracks, cars that run on dirt tend to slide their tires in the turns, requiring a unique set of car control skills by drivers. The engine package the Cup series will run at Bristol will magnify this dynamic, as the 750-horsepower engines should produce a great amount of wheel spin.
The dirt track spectacle hearkens back to the origins of NASCAR — moonshine runners attempting to outrun the law in rural Appalachia, often on slick dirt roads that might resemble the Bristol dirt track. Those efforts ultimately led to the 1948 founding of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, which attempted to professionalize informal racing amongst moonshiners.
Ironically, the winningest driver in NASCAR’s Cup series takes a dim view towards the return to dirt racing, for much the same reason. Asked about the Bristol race last fall, Richard Petty, who won 199 other Cup series races in addition to the last one run on dirt in 1970, viewed it as a potential step backward.
While admitting the Bristol dirt race would be “exciting” for fans, Petty said he looked at it “from an old-time deal because we spent years and years trying to become a professional sport.” Having fought for so long to overcome that “stigma,” Petty worried that “dirt-track racing is not professional, so we’re going backward. It would be like taking a professional football team and going back to play at a high school field.”
Petty’s concerns notwithstanding, professional teams have gone back to play at a high school field — sort of. Shortly after NASCAR announced its dirt race at Bristol last fall, Major League Baseball publicized its “Field of Dreams” game for this August.
The game, originally scheduled for last summer, will feature two pro baseball teams competing in the same Iowa cornfield popularized in the 1989 Kevin Costner movie. MLB teams have also previously competed at the site of the Little League World Series and at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York, baseball’s apocryphal home.
Of course, Major League Baseball won’t compete every day in Cooperstown and Iowa cornfields, just like NASCAR won’t compete on dirt tracks much. For one thing, regular dirt racing would require teams to create custom-built cars for dirt tracks — an expensive proposition at an economically uncertain time.
Still, for one day a year, the sport can honor its roots in a way that gives fans cause for excitement. NASCAR hopes that Sunday’s race will do just that.
I haven’t watched much NASCAR over the last few years - and when I have, it’s mostly been the road course races. But I wish I was home this weekend to watch this race.
And I won’t be home to watch Bristol because I’ll be working a NASA event at Sonoma Raceway. I will always take being at a race event in person over watching one on TV, particularly when I can get paid for doing so.
Hmmmm, at what capacity...? 🤔
They are good ol’ (metrosexual) boys now.
I have hope for it...
One could find oneself going down a rabbit hole following that link. As an aside, that ‘66 Nova in the beginning could be a stand-in for my first car.
... or basketball played on the deck of an aircraft carrier.
My neighborhood is too diverse to risk putting up a flag (and I don’t like giving unintended offense to the ignorant) but I do wish I could get away with doing things like that.
It’s so liberating when you can be politically incorrect.
I hate NASCAR. The cars have nothng to do with real cars sold in the wild. Oval track racing is as boring as watching paint dry. There is way too much contact. I don’t get the concept of “stages”. It is too corporate, although most forms of racing suffer from that today.
That said, I will check this out just to see how they do without traction. World of Outlaw cars are 900 HP on dirt so 750 HP is not outrageous.
I am NOT hoping for crashes. I do expect to get bored within 10-15 minutes. We’ll see.
Dirt is brown. That’s racist. NASCAR is dead. Boosted by its own garage door pull rope. Good riddance
Now THAT I would be for. There are all kinds of AWD cars that would probably be fine. I can’t stand watching spec cars parading around an oval track with a fake Camry or Fusion front end on them. Gimme a break. What a joke. I will stick with sports car racing, thanks. F1 sucks with no passing, and NASCAR is a shell of its original self — even as it appeals to the masses.
Have the storms turned it into a mud hole???
AT 200 MPH, the air around the car can do lots of things....
Any kind of “formula” racing is unexciting. It leaves no room for innovation.
NASCAR can rot in hades!
My Dad used to live next door to Ascot Raceway, went every weekend for years, 60’s -early 70’s
No, very extensive modifications would have to be made to street cars or it would set driver safety back 50 years.
The entire structure/frame of modern race cars are made to protect the drivers. Fuel cells that are made to not rupture, leak or explode are integrated into that frame. The basic contour of the cars has been adjusted to keep the car on the ground dirty side down during accidents. Air damns/air wings/flaps are now utilized to slow the car and create downforce to limit damage and decrease speed when the car is advancing backwards or spinning.
All of these things are built into the car and are not addons. They have been incorporated into the internal and external structure of the cars to protect the drivers of that particular car and the drivers of other cars they may impact in a wreck.
Well then it does not sound much like stock car racing.
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