The NASCAR Cup Series’ experiment with racing on dirt has quietly come to an end after three events. Bristol Motor Speedway has announced that both of its 2024 races will be held on concrete, rather than a temporary dirt surface.
“We are thrilled to announce Bristol Motor Speedway will host the return of the Food City 500 on the concrete high-banks of the World’s Fastest Half Mile in the spring of 2024,” said Bristol Motor Speedway President and General Manager Jerry Caldwell. “We will revive a logo reminiscent of the first Food City 500s in the early ’90s and resurrect the track’s vintage trademark look and feel of the era.”
As the only dirt race on the Cup Series calendar, that would appear to be the end of its experimentation with the alternative driving surface. More than simply a publicity stunt, the event was an attempt to honor the sport’s history.
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NASCAR drivers were expected to race on dirt tracks until 1970, and then took a decades-long break from the loose surface. According to Road & Track, the idea was picked up again in 2013, when the NASCAR Truck Series revived the idea at Eldora.
That served as a proof of concept for the Cup Series, which decided to run a dirt event at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2021. However, some problems quickly cropped up, with rain delaying that race, and leading to a messy event, both literally and figuratively.
Later events had their fair share of excitement, with the two leading cars wrecking on the final turn of the last lap at the 2022 event. However, with no clear alternative plans, it would appear that dirt is once again dead in NASCAR, at least for now.