NASCAR’s dirt weekend is not going well.
We should have seen this coming. There were plenty of doubts raised when this was all announced, and they were raised by the people who know stock cars and dirt the best. The dirt surface was only constructed in the last few weeks, which I think means there wasn’t any significant testing before practice. This is a bad way to attempt a premier event.
Also, it rains in the spring.
So, here we are. The truck qualifying races were so muddy that drivers couldn’t see out their windshields, and NASCAR had to cut them off virtually immediately. The Cup Series race’s format had to be changed to give more opportunities to get fresh tires, for fears of the tires exploding all over the place. And everyone who decided to drink the Kool-aid and ignore the obvious flaws with the plan, hoping it would work (I was among these people) can now tee off on NASCAR and on Speedway Motorsports, the people who own Bristol.
The big winner here, and this may be unexpected to you if you aren’t following NASCAR closely, is Tony Stewart. Tony Stewart owns Eldora Raceway in Ohio, and has successfully run a few Truck Series races there. He was furious about Bristol getting the Cup Series dirt race, pulling Eldora from the Truck Series schedule, which now leaves NASCAR down a functioning dirt race and up a non-functioning one.
Will they figure it out today? We’ll see. But on the bright side, there’s a new kind of intrigue here, centered upon how badly this could all blow up on NASCAR. So if you’ve liked watching the boat in the Suez, tune in.
Where It Is
Bristol. If you aren’t into NASCAR, Bristol is an awesome short track with high banking and, recently, low attendance. Which is why it wanted the dirt race.
When It Is
Allegedly, the green flag will wave at 4:00 PM EDT, but there’s a lot of rain there this morning.
How to Watch
FOX (FS1 if delayed?)
Who to Watch
There’s a good chance this becomes a spectacle and a crapshoot and someone lucks into a playoff berth. So while Kyle Larson (5-to-2 on Bovada) and Christopher Bell (11-to-2) are the favorites, watch everybody. The race itself is the star today. Possibly not in a good way.
How NASCAR Should Script It
This is a good demonstration of why NASCAR doesn’t take our advice and rig these races. They can’t. They could never pull off a good rigging. They can’t even guarantee a way to make the races happen. They are powerless.
(But if this is a long play and you’ve got us all sold, please have Ryan Blaney win. This makes the most sense. You put him in the commercials. I think I saw he drove well at practice on Friday. He is your marketing chip here. But yes, priority should be figuring out how to make the race happen.)
Trucks, Xfinity
Truck race is allegedly going to happen tonight.
