Flooding postpones dirt races at Bristol
BRISTOL, Tenn. — NASCAR’s hyped return to dirt is instead a muddy mess on hold at least until Monday.
Torrential rains flooded campgrounds and parking lots surrounding Bristol Motor Speedway and created a rut for NASCAR far deeper than anything the Cup Series drivers encountered on the track.
NASCAR canceled all Sunday activity because even if Bristol’s converted dirt track could eventually be readied for night racing, the entire facility was a swampy mess. Grandstand seats that had been covered in dust were caked in mud, while pit road and the apron around the 0.533-mile bullring held several inches of standing water.
After 2 1/2 inches of rain fell across “Thunder Valley,” NASCAR made an atypical decision to call an early washout. The first Cup Series race on dirt since 1970 was rescheduled for 4 p.m. Monday; the Truck Series race, already postponed from Saturday night, was set to run at noon Monday.
Somewhere, Tony Stewart likely was having a hearty laugh at Bristol’s expense.
Stewart — the NASCAR Hall of Fame driver with three Cup Series titles and the part owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, which runs four cars on the circuit — successfully hosted seven Truck Series races at his Eldora Speedway dirt track in Ohio. However, when Fox asked NASCAR to put a dirt event on the Cup Series schedule, it went to the concrete track at Bristol instead of Eldora.
An incensed Stewart declined to bring the Truck Series back to his track this year out of spite and has sat back and watched from afar as Bristol attempted to tackle the challenges of a dirt race. He openly fretted that a bad show at Bristol would damage the future of NASCAR dirt racing, and at least one executive seemed to admit it was a valid concern.
“We need this show to be great,” Scott Miller, NASCAR’s
vice president of competition, said Saturday.
Stewart, who has insisted Eldora can successfully host the Cup Series, declined to comment Sunday when reached by The Associated Press.
“I’m not getting my hands dirty,” he said.
In fairness to Bristol parent company Speedway Motorsports, its CEO has been unafraid to take risks and spend considerable money in an effort to bring new energy into the sport. Marcus Smith converted centerpiece Charlotte Motor Speedway into a hybrid oval-and-road course, known as the “Roval,” that in three years has become one of the more popular layouts on the NASCAR schedule.
So Smith was all in on offering Bristol for the dirt experiment, and his staff spent six months converting the venue by topping the track’s concrete surface with 2,300 truckloads of
red Tennessee clay. It was ready in time to host the Bristol Dirt Nationals a week before the Cup Series visited, and Super Late Models, Sport Mods, Modifieds and 602 Late Models raced largely without trouble.
Problems began to crop up this past Friday during practice sessions for the weekend’s NASCAR races.
The dust that kicked up from the dirt was thick, but the main concern was the durability of the tires provided by Goodyear. Drivers reported significant wear down to the cords on their tires, and the 3,400-pound stock cars were tearing up the track surface.
NASCAR made tweaks to in-race procedures to allot additional time for track prep and granted teams an additional set of tires for the race. When it stopped raining Saturday, the trucks were sent out to start heat races, but it took just one lap for the rainsoaked
track to splatter windshields with a thick layer of mud and cake the front grilles. That put every competitor into a blinding situation accompanied by a fear of an overheating engine.
F1: Hamilton holds on
SAKHIR, Bahrain — Reigning series champion Lewis Hamilton just managed to hold off Max Verstappen to win the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, the 96th Formula One victory of his storied career.
The race was effectively decided when Verstappen overtook Hamilton on the 53rd of 56 laps but went too wide on a turn and off track limits. He was told by his Red Bull team to give Hamilton the position back because he risked a time penalty.
Verstappen, who started in pole position, still had a few laps to catch Hamilton and almost did, finishing .74 second
behind the Mercedes driver who last year won his fourth straight season championship and record-tying seventh overall.
With 22 races still to come — next up is the Emilia-Romagna GP in Italy on April 18 — fans could be in for a treat this season if the 23-year-old Verstappen takes the title challenge to Hamilton, who turned 36 in January.
“I’m super happy for the fans that they are excited; this is something all the fans have wanted for some time,” Hamilton said. “I hope for many more of these races with Max.”
Hamilton’s teammate, Valtteri Bottas, finished third but was far behind the front two.
Sergio Perez’s Red Bull debut started badly as his car stalled seconds before the start. He lost his grid position and had to start from the pit lane, but he did well to finish fifth behind Hamilton, Verstappen, Bottas and McLaren’s Lando Norris.