The conversation this week in NASCAR has been centered around the current product of short track racing. Fans and drivers have spent the last few days offering solutions on how to fix short track racing following this past Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway, which lacked excitement throughout the field.
Jeff Gluck of The Athletic chimed in after the race, and the NASCAR insider believes it’s time for the sport to do something big. Speaking on “The Teardown” podcast, Gluck suggested NASCAR introduce an entire new car for short tracks and road courses only. Gluck hasn’t seen anything from the Next Gen car that suggests it will get better.
“I don’t think there is a one size fits all and I think the intermediate racing is spectacular,” Gluck said. “But in that case, look, it’s not my money to spend, so apparently this will never happen, but I think you have to have a car for road courses and short tracks and a car for superspeedways and mile-and-a-half [tracks]. I think it has to be a different car, don’t even think it’s a rules package. I haven’t seen anything you can do to this car that makes it better on short tracks.”
“Next Gen short track car, you use at short tracks and road courses. Next Gen big track car, you use at intermediates. Again, I get why that’s bad because you’re saying design a whole different car, have all these teams buy more cars, buy more parts and so, of course, the industry, the owners, everybody’s going to push back on that and I’m acknowledging that’s a long shot, not my money to spend and easy for me to say. But I don’t see how you fix this without a different car. This car, I’m out on it. What can you say about it? What redeeming qualities are we seeing on short tracks with this car?”
NASCAR insider places blame on Bristol Motor Speedway
Sunday’s race at Bristol saw the first 200 plus lap run in the stage racing era and the first since Dover in September 2016, per Stephen Stumpf of Frontstretch. Passing was hard to come by. Tire wear was non-existent. Kyle Larson led 411-of-500 laps and cruised to the checkered flag.
During Saturday’s practice and qualifying session, teams reported issues with tires after about 40 laps. The expectation was that Sunday’s race would be a tire management race. Then came Stage 1 — Larson ran the full 125 laps on one set and dusted the field. Turns out, the warmer temperatures on Sunday made a difference.
NASCAR has tried to make changes and will continue to look at ways to improve short track racing, NASCAR senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer said Tuesday. But Gluck also feels the folks who run Bristol deserve some blame. Bristol underwent reconfigurations in 2007 and again in 2012 and the racing simply hasn’t been the same since.
“They’ve tried doing things like not using the short track package at Bristol and nothing [has worked]. Part of it is that they have ruined Bristol when they reconfigured it,” Gluck said. “We have to put part of it on Bristol Motor Speedway.”
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