Concrete to replace dirt for Bristol's springtime schedule in 2024
Bristol Motor Speedway announced Friday that after three years of hosting competitive spring dirt races on the track‘s half-mile high banks, the facility will see a return to the traditional concrete, paved short track for the spring in 2024.
One of the sport‘s most beloved and historic race tracks, “The Last Great Colosseum” will once again hold a pair of races on the track‘s unique concrete, .533-mile short track with the same beating and banging fans have grown accustomed to over the years.
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Specific race dates and times will be announced at a later date, but track president and general manager Jerry Caldwell indicated the springtime Cup Series event will return as the Food City 500. That move, Caldwell said, will include a vintage feel and logos that date back to the early 1990s.
“I think NASCAR has done a great job the past several years of trying new things,” Caldwell said in a Friday afternoon appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I think as a sport, we’ve really embraced that. People love our sport, they love tradition, but they also love trying some new things, and they love returning to some some old ways, whether that’s North Wilkesboro, whether that’s dirt, maybe it’s the road course in Chicago, all those things are great things. You know, sometimes you do that for a little while, and then you change things up and go back to the way it was, and that’s what we’re doing here. So, thrilled to be able to do that.
“I think dirt was great. I love dirt, but I think it’s time for us to go back to the concrete in the spring and see what these these drivers can do on concrete twice a year.”
Reigning champion Joey Logano won the dirt-track race‘s inaugural running in 2021, followed by two-time champ Kyle Busch claiming the victory last season before dirt maven Christopher Bell secured his own win earlier this season.
Martin Truex Jr., Ben Rhodes and Logano were winners of the three Craftsman Truck Series events held on Bristol’s dirt configuration the last three seasons.
