Bristol Motor Speedway is Truly the Last Great Colosseum

Bristol Motor Speedway has always been a favorite track of mine.  From the fan’s perspective, it’s great because there really isn’t a bad seat at the track.  Last week was my fifth trip to the Bristol night race.  This was the first time that I attended the races for all three major national level series (Trucks, Xfinity, Cup.)  It was also the first time I was able to experience the track from the infield, as a member of the media.

In this article, I present my own personal experience to the reader.  I also cover the major story lines from this past weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. Overall, it was quite the experience, and I hope I can, at least, begin to do it justice.  It is no exaggeration to call Bristol Motor Speedway, “The Last Great Colosseum.”

Thursday, September 14, 2023:

I have to be honest.  This first night, I focused mainly on getting used to my new surroundings.  It was very different.  My background is in the field of sociology, so I reverted to the role of an objective observer.  A big concern for me was to not get in the way, so to speak.

The first night of the weekend was an ARCA and Truck series double-header.  For the truck series, the UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics was the opening race for the playoff round of 8.  The first race of the night however, was the Bush’s Beans 200 ARCA race.

Arrival at the Track: 

My fiancee, Emily, and I arrived at the track prior to the beginning of the Bush’s Beans 200.  We were staying in Johnson City this year, which was about 20 minutes away from the track.  As we made our way towards Parking Lot E, we eventually saw the colossal short track.  Bristol Motor Speedway, while only a half mile track, is a huge complex.  One must not be fooled by its short track status.  Be prepared to use one’s legs.

Thankfully, shortly after making our way through the hospitality village behind turn 4, a golf cart stopped to offer us a ride.  I knew that I needed to go through gate 9 to utilize the pedestrian tunnel to the infield.  Our seats were on the frontstretch however.  Emily said she could just enter the track through gate 8.  We did so, and made our way to our seats, which was still a walk, but the hill climbing had been avoided.

I eventually made my way back to gate 9 to make my way to the infield.  The pedestrian tunnel is an easy stroll while entering.  The tunnel is fairly plain but has historical moments from previous Bristol races memorialized on the wall.  It builds a type of emotional momentum of hyping one up for entering hallowed ground, this matches the physical pace of the initial downhill decline.  Finally, the tunnel levels off and you can see natural light shining through the opening to the infield.  One forgets that the incline into the infield is rather short and steep.

ARCA — Bush’s Beans 200: 

Upon exiting the pedestrian tunnel, I noticed that I was near the Infield Care Center with Victory Lane on its roof.  It was a wild experience to realize where I was located.  For years, I have been in the stands looking at all the people in the infield before, during, and after races.  Despite it being a half mile track, the people are always so small in one’s field of vision from the stands.  It was surreal.

From there, I went to check out the media center.  It didn’t take long to find my assigned seat.  I figured the ARCA race would be a good time to get used to my surroundings.  I haven’t really followed ARCA a whole lot, except for a race here or there.  My goal was to get comfortable and try to get some relevant pictures from the event.  After Frankie Muniz was involved in an accident I was able to get a picture that could be used for our social media.

😬 @frankiemuniz @ARCA_Racing car post wreck @ItsBristolBaby #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/lkn75s6QMs

— Pit Pass Network (@pitpassnetwork) September 14, 2023

Other than that, the ARCA race was dominated by Jesse Lowe, though William Sawalwich was able to pass him late in the race to take the checkered flag.  For the most part, I did many laps on foot during the ARCA race behind both pit roads to get acquainted with my surroundings.  At one point, my fiancee, Emily, sent me a text of a picture she had taken of me.  This added to the surreal nature of the experience, as I was now one of the small figures in a picture taken from the stands.

Trucks — UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics:

I’ve always enjoyed the truck series. I remember back in the day being a Mike Skinner fan, because, well, he drove the Dale Earnhardt paint scheme on a truck. It was really that simple for me at the time.  These days, as a fan, I pull for ThorSport Racing. The lineup of Ben Rhodes, Ty Majeski, Matt Crafton, and Hailie Deegan is a good lineup I feel, with Deegan and Majeski being my favorites. Still part of doing media at the track is objectivity and thus, not overtly cheering for one team or wearing any team specific merchandise.

I made my way to the very beginning of the frontstretch pit road just off the exit of turn 4.  I still remember the first race, I attended at Bristol. The green flag start of the race is what I remember most. The cars are loud under caution, but then when you hear them go green, it is something totally different. That first year in the stands I wanted to hear the start without putting any ear plugs in. I made it through a couple laps before putting the earbuds in. The sound of the race going green at Bristol Motor Speedway is thrilling.

Race start…#NASCARPlayoffs#UNOH200 #ItsBristolBaby pic.twitter.com/NPkKTvUa0H

— Gregory Latham Jr (@B7grWinning) September 15, 2023

Recorded video just doesn’t do it much justice.  You have to experience the start of a race at Bristol Motor Speedway to really get it.  Anyway, the truck series race was great.  There was some chaos, and while one driver dominated much of the race, a different driver actually pulled off the win.  Christian Eckes won both stage 1 and stage 2.  Still Corey Heim was able to steal the win from Eckes with a late pass for the lead.

Friday, September 15, 2023:

I woke up the next day with my legs hurting.  Therefore, I decided to try and stretch some prior to heading to the track.  Furthermore, I made the futile decision to not walk around the infield as much as the night before.  (Ultimately, I failed in this second goal.  There had been so much happening that I did not want to miss any of it.)

Thankfully, my legs stopped hurting on the walk to the track from parking lot E on this second day.  Emily and I made it to gate 8 and parted ways.  I wanted to make sure that I did not miss any of the cup series’ qualifying session.  We had arrived during practice.  On the walk up to the track, it was easy to hear the cars on track during practice prior to qualifying.

I fully expected to see the Fords perform well in qualifying.  Ford had been great at short tracks all season long, despite their shortcomings on the intermediate tracks.  Furthermore, the Fords did well during the 2022 Bristol Night Race qualifying session.  The biggest surprise of qualifying for me, came from the #4 Gearwrench Ford driven by Kevin Harvick.  To be honest, I figured that Bristol would be one of the top 5 tracks where Harvick would have the best chances at reaching victory lane in his final season.  His qualifying position of 21st was unexpected to say the least.

Qualifying Session: @KevinHarvick and @RodneyChilders4 look on at @ItsBristolBaby … they will start 21st Saturday night.#ItsBristolBaby #NASCAR75 #NASCARPlayoffs #BassProShops500#AmericasNightRace#4EVER pic.twitter.com/W8v85YPQgi

— Gregory Latham Jr (@B7grWinning) September 16, 2023

Xfinity Series — Food City 300:

The Xfinity Series playoffs began with the Food City 300 on September 15th. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. also made his return to racing in the NASCAR Xfinity series during this race as well.  The infield (and track in general) was a bit busier for the Food City 300. I suspect that Dale Earnhardt, Jr’s appearance played a major role in this. Personally, I thought the Kevin Harvick Mobil 1 paint scheme on Cole Custer’s 00 Ford Mustang was awesome.

Working on @pkligerman car in the infield #NASCAR #NASCARPlayoffs #FoodCity300 pic.twitter.com/yGXvXHCbt7

— Pit Pass Network (@pitpassnetwork) September 16, 2023

The Xfinity race did not disappoint.  Awesome paint scheme notwithstanding, Custer, who won the pole and stage 1, went on to finish 4th in the race. Playoff drivers experienced plenty of drama.  Parker Kligerman experienced a broken part on a fast car and ended up 31st.  JR Motorsports teammates Josh Berry (finished 36th) and Sam Mayer (finished 35th) made contact and collected another teammate in Brandon Jones.  Meanwhile, Sheldon Creed got into RCR teammate Austin Hill, which led to Hill crashing out of the race and finishing 33rd.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had a great race up until the point a fire broke out in his car and his racing suit caught fire.  JR Motorsports salvaged a great night despite all the carnage via Justin Allgaier’s win.

A quick look at @DaleJr car post race #NASCAR #NASCARPlayoffs #FoodCity300 pic.twitter.com/4vf9zmUjuh

— Pit Pass Network (@pitpassnetwork) September 16, 2023

Saturday, September 16, 2023:

I woke up Saturday morning having clearly not learned my lesson about doing too many laps on foot in the infield.  My legs really didn’t want to bend at all.  I put this concern out of my mind, as I had learned the previous day that the walk from parking to the track would loosen and warm them up.  Tonight was the big night.

An announcement that involved Zane Smith and Trackhouse was scheduled for 5 pm.  The start of the cup race had been moved up an hour the prior day, due to weather related concerns.  The end result was simply that we needed to make it to the track earlier than originally planned.  The right front tire on our vehicle appeared to have lost air, so on the drive to the track, we stopped to put air in the tire.

Cup Series — Bass Pro Shops Night Race:

Clouds had lingered over the pre-race festivities.  The pre-race ritual for the Bristol cup series night race usually includes plenty of pyrotechnics.  It always reminded me of the Mad Max movies to be honest.  This is a good thing.  I love those movies.  Pyrotechnics are almost a necessity for a great show.  This is true whether we are talking about the pre-race at Bristol, or a concert put on by the German metal band, Rammstein.

This year, I missed most of the pre-race show being in the media center.  They finally got the engines started and went on to the track to do pace laps.  I began to walk around the infield and noticed that it was beginning to rain.  Several people had umbrellas with them.  I figured that the race wouldn’t get started and returned to the media center.  They brought the cars back down pit road for a short time, but eventually got the race going, approximately around the original start time.

Once again, the Bristol Night Race did not disappoint. There was chaos, drama, wildly unexpected poor performances, a short rain delay, and other surprises.  At the end of the night, four drivers were eliminated from the playoffs.  Personally, I was shocked by the drivers who were eliminated at Bristol Motor Speedway.  Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse were both basically in must win situations, but I would have never thought Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano would have failed to make it to the round of 8.

The Eliminated and the Survivors Amongst All Our Favorite Drivers:

To be honest, I’m not sure who to feel worse for, Michael McDowell or Kevin Harvick. Michael McDowell had a great race.  Late in the race I captured the picture above of McDowell’s pit stall and crew.  I’ve never seen people so unhappy to be having such a good race, ultimately finishing 6th.  On the other hand, Kevin Harvick had a night that didn’t even really fit into their up and down year.  They have been off during some weeks, but nothing this bad (and at a track they are so good at.)  While it is terrible to see Harvick’s playoff run end early in his final season, they, at least, had no confusion about which emotions to feel as the laps wound down.

Joey Logano was the victim of the Last Great Colosseum.  Logano’s playoff run ended when he got tangled up in an accident, which appeared to have broken a left rear toe-link.  This bad luck for Logano combined with the extraordinarily uncharacteristic performance of Kevin Harvick opened the door for Martin Truex, Jr. and Bubba Wallace to sneak through to the next round.  Logano crashed out and was awarded points for 34th position, while Harvick’s car just would not do anything crew chief Rodney Childers wanted it to do. Harvick finished multiple laps down in 29th place.

Martin Truex, Jr and Bubba Wallace had other drivers’ bad luck on their side at Bristol Motor Speedway.  Truex finished 19th, while Wallace finished 14th.  To be fair, Truex had the strength of his regular season performance helping him to advance as well.  Had he not been the regular season champion he wouldn’t have advanced, as he would have started the playoffs with 15 less points.  Denny Hamlin avoided all of this via winning the race, and then immediately (and fully) embracing the villain role.

Final Thoughts:

As a fan, I could not have been more disappointed with the actual race results, as far as finishing order goes.  Still I walked away (slowly–especially after climbing the incline while exiting the pedestrian tunnel to leave the track) very happy with my overall experience.  Bristol Motor Speedway truly is the Last Great Colosseum.  This night race has everything.  Furthermore, I believe it would make a great championship race, if they ever decide to change up the championship race.  There is just so much going on during the Bristol night race, it would only add to the excitement involved in the final championship weekend for all three national series.

When Emily and I made it back to our vehicle this last night, the right front tire had gone completely flat.  We had a spare tire that didn’t have any air in it, and a jack that wouldn’t work.  Thankfully, some of the track employees who were tasked with traffic, were able to help us by using a tow truck to help us lift up the car.  They helped us out quite a bit, and we were finally able to leave the track.  When we made it to the nearest place with an air compressor, we quickly realized it was out of order.  Thankfully, Bristol Wrecking was able to get to us, so we could get air in our spare tire.  I just wanted to give a quick shout out to the track employees and Bristol Wrecking for their help.