(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)
By Aaron Bearden

Main Takeaway

What comes next for NASCAR on Easter Sunday?

The third running of the Bristol Dirt Race may have been the most successful of the trio. Finally blessed with a race day free from rain, NASCAR’s stars put on a showcase race in a primetime TV slot on a dirt track that was well prepared for 250 laps of constantly-adapting action. 

Dirt prowess seemed to matter. The top-six finishers at Bristol Motor Speedway all came from dirt backgrounds. The only drivers that were poised to disrupt their dominance were Ryan Blaney – the son of sprint car ace Dave Blaney – and defending winner Kyle Busch, who is an all-time NASCAR great. But Blaney’s run was lost to a spin, while Busch suffered broken shocks on the right side of his Chevrolet. 

The crowd on-hand wasn’t ideal. Yet those in attendance saw an event filled with crashes, battles, hot tempers, comers and goers. Basically everything you’d want from a Bristol race – concrete or otherwise. 

Not to say everything was perfect, of course. There were just four lead changes and a host of early cautions, with 14 yellow flags in all. But the race was compelling and provided action until the final, caution-shortened conclusion. 

“I just have to thank SMI for all of the hard work they’ve done with this dirt racing,” Austin Dillon said after his third-place run in the race. “I don’t care what anybody says, that was an amazing show throughout the field. I felt like it was some great racing.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. said he “thought the race track was as good as it could be,” noting that drivers “could run kind of all over the place.” Chase Briscoe called the track “awesome,” saying it “was the most realistic dirt race you’re gonna get (without) real dirt cars. 

“I felt like we finally saw the dirt guys shine for that same reason, so I had a lot of fun running the top like that,” he said. “It actually built a little bit of a cushion.” 

By most accounts, NASCAR delivered a solid run on Easter Sunday. But the question remains: Should the series bother with the Bristol dirt again moving forward? 

Kyle Larson doesn’t think so. In fact, he thinks NASCAR “doesn’t need to be racing on dirt” at all. 

Dirt late model ace Jonathan Davenport made a weekend cameo in NASCAR, running both the Truck and Cup races. But while the driver known as ‘Superman’ enjoyed his NASCAR experience and would gladly race in Cup again, he also acknowledged that it isn’t necessarily an event reflective of true dirt racing. 

“I classify this more as a show than a race, really,” Davenport said. “These cars (aren’t) built to race on dirt. 

“I don’t know. It’s cool. It’s different. It’s a novelty. But this (isn’t) really true dirt racing. It’s just something different.” 

Those are genuine dirt competitors that are uncertain about NASCAR’s need to run on a dirt track, makeshift or genuine. Others from outside of the dirt ranks are even less enamored with the concept. 

The decision on whether dirt will return to the NASCAR schedule in 2024 and beyond remains to be seen. Speedway Motorsports president and CEO Marcus Smith was noncommittal on the return of dirt to Bristol next year. 

Should SMI opt out, NASCAR could look to other, purpose-built dirt tracks for a Cup Series dirt race. Eldora Speedway and Knoxville Raceway have hosted Truck Series events in the past. But the general issue of NASCAR not having purpose-built dirt cars will continue to be a source of difficulty for track preparation and the quality of racing at any dirt track for the foreseeable future. 

Based on the on-track product alone, Sunday’s showcase provided incentive for renewed interest in Cup Series dirt racing moving forward. But the ultimate decision on whether dirt returns to Bristol or elsewhere could prove a tricky call to make. 

 

Good, Bad and Ugly

Ugly: Out of (Race) Control

Okay, seriously. What was going on in the tower at Bristol? Did anyone know what did or didn’t constitute a caution on Sunday? 

The group in race control didn’t seem to.

In the early stages, every single-car spin was met with the yellow flag. But as the race went on, numerous spins passed by without the caution lights kicking on. Yet just when that precedent appeared set, a solo spin down by the pit entrance by Kyle Busch elicited a yellow in the final 20 laps of the race, setting the field up for a short sprint to the checkered flag. 

That wasn’t the end of the inconsistency, either. On the ensuing restart Ryan Blaney was turned around in front of the entire field after restarting second.

Surely that would yield another caution, right? 

Nope. The field rolled on under green, leaving Blaney mired back in 23rd while those that had to dodge him fought to re-establish their pace and get back to battling for position. 

Additional chaos ensued over the closing laps, but NASCAR seemed poised to let the race roll green to the finish. Tyler Reddick chased down Christopher Bell, sizing him up for a desperation dive into the final set of corners – the opposite of the situation he was in just last year when Chase Briscoe messed up a final-lap send and spun both drivers.

But in a cruel twist of fate for Reddick, he never got the chance to make the move. A backstretch crash left Ross Chastain’s battered No. 1 Chevrolet stopped in Turn 3, forcing NASCAR to display the caution again on the last lap. Bell won under yellow, picking up his first win of the 2023 season. 

Officiating issues are nothing new to the sports world. Basketball, baseball and football have all seen games called tight, with a questionable blow of the whistle swinging the outcome of a game. Race control debates aren’t even left to NASCAR alone. Formula 1’s had recent controversy over red flag decisions and one of the NTT IndyCar Series’ most frequently-memed moments involved frustration with the series officials. 

But it’s a shame that the inconsistency of caution flag decisions hampered what was otherwise an intriguing NASCAR dirt event. You can understand why some wonder if things like the TV broadcast window and urge for late race restarts impact caution decisions when calls from the tower appear inconsistent. 

 

Bad: Preece and Larson ruffle feathers

Whether Ryan Preece intentionally wrecked Kyle Larson on Sunday was uncertain – though it certainly seemed possible. But the two short track stars were clearly at odds leaving the Bristol Dirt Race. 

Larson and Preece collided multiple times over the course of the night in Tennessee, their similarly-liveried machines trading paint until Larson was knocked out of the race after 177 laps. 

Preece was the first of the two to feel aggrieved, being sent into the wall after contact in a battle with Larson on Lap 79. The former Whelen Modifed Tour champion was clearly upset, saying “game over” to his team, running alongside Larson and shaking his hand at the 2021 champion on a caution shortly afterward. 

A disappointed Larson admitted it was “a tight clear” out of the corner after the race. “Obviously, I’m looking in my mirror and it didn’t seem as if he was to my right rear yet. I don’t know if he got into the wall, but he had a pretty short temper, obviously. He tried to crash me, I think, after that. He was sort of mad at me under yellow.”

Things seemed to simmer down after the run-in, but nearly 100 laps later Larson found himself battling Preece again after a spin. It was then that the two-time Chili Bowl Nationals champion was clattered into the wall off of Turn 4 by a challenging Preece. His No. 5 Chevrolet then tilted down the track, where he and Preece collided again, sending Larson spinning into the Turn 1 wall. 

The accident ended Larson’s day in 35th. Preece continued on, but wound up a distant 24th after a disappointing night. 

“I assumed it had been an hour and a half or so since that happened,” Larson said, referring to his initial run-in with Preece. “It wasn’t my fault why he ended up spun out in the back. I thought he would chill out. 

“Obviously, he didn’t and rammed me into the fence and ended our day. It is what it is.”

Preece denied intentionally crashing Larson, saying he “got loose” while trying to run the top – something he struggled with as “a guy who runs the bottom.” 

“I still agree that a lot of people are going to stand their ground, but by no means was that intentional,” he said. “I was just trying to get all I could.”

Larson and Preece don’t have a history of run-ins or reasons to think that Sunday’s frustrations will linger moving forward. Both were running well before separate spins sent them to the back of the pack in the middle stages of the race. 

Preece has been outspoken in recent weeks about the lack of perceived respect in Cup racing, telling Frontstretch he was “wrecked by a bunch of hacks” at Circuit of the Americas.

“I get so frustrated because growing up, a lot of these guys just pay their way and they don’t respect cars… and run into everyone,” he said at the time. “Someone needs an a** kicking, that’s for sure.”

 

Good: Todd Gilliland keeps the good times rolling

With his future uncertain and the pressure to succeed at its steepest, Cup Series sophomore Todd Gilliland is rising to the occasion for Front Row Motorsports. 

The 22-year-old son of former Cup star David Gilliland was met with shocking news that he wouldn’t be full-time in the No. 38 Ford shortly before the season began. Craftsman Truck Series champion Zane Smith was slated to take over the car for at least six races, starting at Phoenix Raceway in March. Gilliland was able to fill in the missing races on his schedule with Rick Ware Racing and a race in the sister No. 36 Ford at Talladega Superspeedway, but the North Carolinian was clearly put on the hot seat after a quiet rookie year. 

It’s still too early to see how Gilliland will fare in this makeshift season, but the young star’s been showcasing his talents in recent weeks. He had an average finish of 25th in his first three starts for FRM. But in the four races since his first run with RWR (32nd at Phoenix), Gilliland has managed four top-15s and two top-10s to match the amount he managed in his complete rookie campaign. 

The latest great run for Gilliland came in the Bristol Dirt race, where he parlayed a strong strategy decision into an eighth-place result despite his car handling better in the early stages of the race. 

 “I think our car was good when it was really tacky,” Gilliland said. “I got in that very first wreck and when I was a lap down, it was so fun. I passed like 10 to 15 cars, so I think we were more just set up for when it was tackier. We didn’t really have the entry grip or the exit grip we needed when it got really slick. 

“That’s how this place goes, though. It goes through such a big swing. I feel like for a majority of the race we were OK. Frustrating because I thought we could have got a better finish, but that’s racing sometimes.”

The past four races have been a true showcase of NASCAR’s variety – a drafting-focused track (Atlanta), road course (COTA), short track (Richmond) and dirt race (Bristol Dirt). Through the challenging stretch Gilliland has had an average finish of 12th, rocketing up from 31st to 23rd in the championship standings. 

He still has 36 points to make up on teammate Michael McDowell, but Gilliland is closer to his veteran partner than last year and showing genuine improvement early in the season. If he can keep this performance up, perhaps Gilliland can show he’s worthy of another Cup season in 2024. 

 

Bad: Missed Moments

I’m not going to touch on this one much, but didn’t it seem like FOX missed just about every wreck live? 

How many times did the announcers call out accidents only for them to be shown late or not at all? Credit to FOX for finding a way to show each incident that set off a caution flag, but the viewing experience often became confusing as a TV spectator because of a perceived disconnect between the commentators and what was displayed.

 

Ugly: Briscoe’s big mistake

Chase Briscoe proved to be a contender once again in the Next Gen car on dirt, running inside of the top-five for the majority of Sunday’s closing sequence in Tennessee. 

But for the second-straight year, the Hoosier’s run is going to be best remembered for a poor late mistake. 

Briscoe was lined up behind Ryan Blaney, the second car on the inside lane, heading into the last restart of the race. The Stewart-Haas Racing ace hoped to dive under Blaney and make a move to get to the front row. But when he made the move, Briscoe clipped one of the kerbs to the inside of the track, sending him up the track and into the left-rear of Blaney’s No. 12 Ford. 

That sent Blaney spinning in front of the field, relegating the Team Penske star to 23rd at race’s end. 

“I was excited to start on the front row,” Blaney said. “I thought that we were kind of making the middle work, and I was really pumped to start on the front row and see what we had, but we never got a shot. The 14 hit us from behind and that was it.” 

Before the incident Briscoe had been one of the weekend’s positive stories. The third-year star had delivered a good run amid a difficult start to the year, battling through a broken middle finger on his left hand sustained in a dirt late model crash Thursday. He was in search of redemption after accidentally spinning himself and Reddick in a desperation dive for the win on the final lap of last year’s race. 

Instead Briscoe left Bristol’s annual dirt event again having to explain a late gaffe that overshadowed a fifth-place run. 

 

Notes

  • Inaugural Bristol Dirt race winner Joey Logano had fared well in both Cup races on the dirt and dominated Saturday’s Craftsman Truck Series race. But his luck clearly ran out on Sunday. The Connecticut native was seemingly involved in every early accident before he mercifully crashed out after Lap 96. 
  • A 14th-place finish isn’t the sort of think Erik Jones would normally celebrate. But the Michigander came back from three laps down to salvage his top-15 at Bristol, so he was “definitely happy to get out of here with a decent finish after a night like that.”
  • Matt Crafton made a surprise Cup start for Rick Ware Racing in place of Cody Ware, who has since been confirmed to have been arrested on charges of assault on a female and assault by strangulation – inflict serious injury. Ware has been suspended indefinitely by NASCAR. Crafton finished 34th with engine issues.
  • With Crafton in the field, six of the seven Eldora Speedway winners in the Truck Series competed in Sunday’s Bristol dirt race – Bell (first), Dillon (third), Briscoe (fifth), Bubba Wallace (12th) and Larson (35th) were also in the event. Only 2019 winner Stewart Friesen was absent from the field.
  • Rookie Ty Gibbs has been on a roll lately, rattling off four top-10 finishes in a row from Atlanta through Bristol. He’s finished no better than ninth, but the young Toyota prospect is up to 18th in points due to his consistency.
  • Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s top-five at Bristol give him multiple top-fives for just the second time in his four seasons with JTG-Daugherty Racing. The Mississippian tallied three of them in 2020.
  • With 75 of a possible 100 points still taken away from him after an appeal, it’s going to be difficult for Justin Haley and his No. 31 Kaulig Racing team to make an impact in their second Cup season together. But the Hoosier did manage a sixth-place run in Bristol – his best result of the year to date.
  • Bell dedicated Sunday’s win to sprint car competitor Justin Owen, who succumbed to injuries sustained in a Saturday USAC Sprint Car qualifying crash at Lawrenceburg Speedway.

 

Race Results

  1. Christopher Bell
  2. Tyler Reddick
  3. Austin Dillon
  4. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  5. Chase Briscoe
  6. Justin Haley
  7. Martin Truex Jr.
  8. Todd Gilliland
  9. Kevin Harvick
  10. Ty Gibbs
  11. Michael McDowell
  12. Bubba Wallace
  13. William Byron
  14. Erik Jones
  15. Harrison Burton
  16. AJ Allmendinger
  17. Brad Keselowski
  18. Chris Buescher
  19. Austin Cindric
  20. JJ Yeley
  21. Ty Dillon
  22. Denny Hamlin
  23. Ryan Blaney
  24. Ryan Preece
  25. Daniel Suarez
  26. BJ McLeod
  27. Josh Berry
  28. Ross Chastain
  29. Alex Bowman
  30. Corey LaJoie
  31. Aric Almirola
  32. Kyle Busch
  33. Noah Gragson
  34. Matt Crafton
  35. Kyle Larson
  36. Jonathan Davenport
  37. Joey Logano

Stage 1

  1. Kyle Larson
  2. Austin Dillon
  3. Kyle Busch
  4. Ryan Preece
  5. Ryan Blaney
  6. Christopher Bell
  7. Chase Briscoe
  8. Tyler Reddick
  9. Justin Haley
  10. William Byron

Stage 2

  1. Tyler Reddick
  2. Austin Dillon
  3. Kyle Larson
  4. Christopher Bell
  5. Kyle Busch
  6. Chase Briscoe
  7. Martin Truex Jr.
  8. Ryan Blaney
  9. Justin Haley
  10. Aric Almirola

Playoff Picture

In With A Win

  • William Byron (2)
  • Christopher Bell
  • Kyle Larson
  • Tyler Reddick
  • Kyle Busch
  • Joey Logano
  • Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Above the Cut

  • Ross Chastain (+86)
  • Kevin Harvick (+73)
  • Martin Truex Jr.(+50)
  • Brad Keselowski (+34)
  • Ryan Blaney (+29)
  • Alex Bowman (+29)
  • Denny Hamlin (+21)
  • Austin Cindric (+11)
  • Chris Buescher (+1)

Outside Looking In

  • Michael McDowell (-1)
  • Ty Gibbs (-9)
  • Daniel Suarez (-13)
  • Chase Briscoe (-20)
  • Corey LaJoie (-21)
  • Austin Dillon (-26)
  • Todd Gilliland (-37)
  • Bubba Wallace (-40)
  • AJ Allmendinger (-49)
  • Erik Jones (-55)
  • Ryan Preece (-75)
  • Harrison Burton (-77)
  • Aric Almirola (-82)
  • Noah Gragson (-92)
  • Justin Haley (-122)
  • Ty Dillon (-130)
  • Chase Elliott (-134)
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Bristol Dirt