Some NASCAR drivers not digging ongoing Bristol dirt experiment

Credit must be given to NASCAR for at long last shaking up the status quo and trying new things, no matter how outlandish the idea. Progressive thinking is how the Cup Series wound up back at dirt-covered Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for a second consecutive year, this time racing late into the night on Easter Sunday — a previously taboo date.

The first edition of Bristol dirt last year had its challenges. The 2,300 truckloads of red Tennessee clay at first turned to mud and blacked out the driver windshields. When the dirt dried out, it turned the bullring into a blinding dust bowl.

It was the same vibe over the weekend, only this time the drivers weren’t pleased to have lost their holiday weekend and that contributed to their disdain over reconfiguring a perfectly racy concrete short track into dirt.

After watching attendance for its spring race plummet over the last 15 years, Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith was willing to spend the money on the experiment, which became a made-for-tv event when Fox Sports successfully pushed for the race to fill a holiday primetime slot.

The crowd wasn’t spectacular — maybe better that what Bristol had been getting for its spring race — and as veteran driver Kevin Harvick noted, the entire effort will have been a waste of time if Fox fails to deliver strong ratings.

It didn’t help that the race was delayed twice by rain, and Harvick was mortified when a caution was called so drivers could have the mud cleaned off their windshields.

“We all look like a bunch of bozos coming in to pit because we don’t know how to prep the track,” he said.