Changes are coming to Bristol Motor Speedway

By Reggie's Take on March 30, 2012

Bristol Motor Speedway owner Bruton Smith said he’ll make changes to the track. Smith did not reveal what exactly he’ll do to the track, but said in a statement an announcement could come in about two weeks.

Fans have clamored for him to return it to how it was before a 2007 reconfiguration added variable banking in the corners. It opened up lanes for two-and-three wide racing. Fans prefer the tight lines that lent to bumping and banging.

Smith said. ”The race fans have spoken. We had input that included a wide range of opinions. But the majority we heard from said they wanted to see changes made. The question we wanted to answer as quickly as possible was `Is something going to be done?’ The answer to that is `yes.’ We will have the details in two weeks as to what that `something’ is.”

”Bristol Motor Speedway has been voted the most popular race track in the country more than a half-dozen times, even one of the 10 things you need to see before you die. We aim to keep the status as the fans’ favorite.”

Smith became open to changes after poor attendance at the March 18 race. The speedway seats 160,000, and the grandstands appeared half empty during that race.

If Smith is going to resurface Bristol yet again, Dale Earnhardt Jr. argues that he should consult with drivers in an attempt to get it right.

“If he wants to move back to the other race track or the other surface the way it was designed, he should talk to the drivers as well about what made that work, what they liked about that. Because there were some things about that race track before that I liked,” Earnhardt Jr. said.

Brad Keselowski, who has won the past two Sprint Cup events at Bristol, believes some complaints about the facility’s current surface are “self-serving.”

Keselowski says “Personally, I think it’s irresponsible, misinformed and at best, self-serving, for any driver or media member who goes out there and criticizes the track. I don’t think that’s right. I think there are drivers that struggle there as the track has been reconfigured and have ulterior motives to point the finger at the surface reconfiguration instead of their own teams’ performance. And I think there are media members that enjoy getting the extra attention and extra reads for talking about the track’s surface. But I don’t think that it’s an informed opinion when you look at it objectively.”