Grown-Up Bristol a Whole Lot Better

Tweets, comments, and a few emails in the past couple of days have questioned the very soul of why Bristol Motor Speedway was sold out Saturday night.

They've supposed that the main reason over 160,000 souls packed the half-mile concrete bowl in as-far-as-it-gets-from-New-York-City east Tennessee may not actually be there anymore -- thanks to NASCAR's new car, the new Bristol surface or even the championship format.

Bristol, as they'd tell it, has become what no one thought it could: boring.

Au contriare, I must say.

Bristol Motor Speedway's concrete facelift in 2007 may have started a new generation of racing at the track, but the level of satisfaction after Saturday night's race has certainly not lowered versus races from years past.

The facelift consisted of a full removal of the old track surface before a new layer of concrete was added to smooth out the venue weathered by years of hot sun and cold snow in the hills of east Tennessee. And instead of having a consistent banking, the track opted to go with a graduated system that made the track's pitch near the outside wall higher than that near the bottom yellow line.

The new banking was intended to produce more side-by-side racing at Bristol instead of one-lane action that produced a freight train effect when a would driver would pass another on the inside. Should more cars be following closely behind, many more positions would be lost thanks to the lack of grip in the high groove.

The one lane racing is also what helped to create the legend, if you will, of Bristol with its numerous crashes and heated tempers because drivers simply got tired of not being able to pass despite having a faster car.

So, after three night races with the new concrete configuration at Bristol, the racing has dramatically changed. For emphasis, just look at how many times the leader chose to start on the inside groove for a restart on Saturday night. That number coordinates with Jimmie Johnson's career win total at BMS -- zero.

Generally speaking, the low lane of Bristol is still the fastest. That's the case, though, until a driver gets to the outside in the corner. Instead of driving from the low lane to the outside wall coming off a corner, the bottom-side driver is forced to pinch the wheel further to avoid contact -- a move that hurts speed and momentum.

The result is plenty of side-by-side racing with drivers in control of their machines. And when drivers have control of their race cars, they are more apt to challenge longer for a position and not make contact or crash -- a key point that helps keep the green flag out and the yellow flag shelved.

That has led to somewhat of a problem for Bristol because the number of incidents has seemed to decrease with the new surface. When you're known for lots of crashes (which, of course, lead to finger-pointing and other types of exciting retaliation) fans expect that, year-in and year-out.

It's simple, fans dig the drama.

The crashes were certainly lacking Saturday night -- if that's what you tuned in to see -- but the racing itself wasn't. Two-wide was the norm, three-wide was just an eye-opener and, for a few instances, four-wide racing was straight jaw-dropping.

Of course, don't forget that fantastic ending -- despite the fact that it didn't have what fans of every sport nearly always want: an unexpected last-second change in outcome.

Mark Martin and Kyle Busch put on a whale of an exhibition on how to race appropriately for a win, and how to make it exciting. Busch knew he could likely hold off Martin off even if he left the inside open, and Martin knew that he might have a chance to win if he could get Busch to slip just a little bit in the closing laps.

Busch, though, held a pretty wheel and managed to stave off the corner-after-corner charges by NASCAR's resident AARP ringer -- OK, OK... he's not that old... -- to serve up a much-needed win for his team and a nailbiter of a finish for NASCAR fans.

In reality, we're just seeing the grown-up version of Bristol where drivers can exhibit their craft and fans can watch the talent in close-quarters action, thanks mainly to the new banking. The fast cars can race through the pack and the slower ones aren't rolling roadblocks.

Sure, some drivers may have that dreaded consistency on their minds with Bristol coming so close to the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and others may have just not figured out the Car of Tomorrow platform. The latter is a problem with the team not the track and the former could be easily resolved with the addition of Bristol to the Chase.

Wouldn't it be an awesome to know that the first Chase race is a knock-em-down, drag-em-out duel for the race win at BMS?

But Bristol's not boring, and if you think it is, I hope you've never heard of a race track in Fontana, Calif.