It was a cool idea in theory, as NASCAR scheduled its first dirt-track race since 1970 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Late model races held last week received favorable reviews, but NASCAR's Cup and Truck Series entries, along with this weekends weather have not been kind. Above are the Cup Series cars in favorable conditions, with visibility shaky at best - large divots were created and tires wore out to the core in short order. On Saturday storms and rain made proceedings literally as clear as mud. It took less than a lap for the tires and windshields to become caked in mud, forcing the cancellation of Cup qualifying and the scheduled Truck Series race.
Additional heavy rains including flooding occurred Saturday night, forcing NASCAR to reschedule both the Truck and Cup Series races for Monday at the earliest.
The 2008 Brickyard 400 event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway became a disaster after tires only lasted 10 laps (25 miles) on the IMS surface. Attendance for what was a marquee event has dropped to under 100,000 in recent years, less than 25 percent of capacity.
Events at the 160,000 Bristol facility were once one of the toughest tickets in all of sports, but attendance plummeted at BMS and other NASCAR facilities throughout the 2010s.
Anything above a complete disaster at Bristol at Sunday will be considered a moral victory for NASCAR.