Bristol Dirt is no more. On Friday, the track confirmed that they’ll no longer host 1 dirt race and 1 concrete race each season. It will go back to the way it was – 2 races on the concrete surface. While dates for those are TBA, this announcement confirms the end of the dirt race at the Tennessee short track.

It was in my opinion, a wise decision. It just felt wrong to pour dirt over Bristol. The track is too special to do so at. However, I get the decision to do so though too.

Bristol feared they’d be among the next on the chopping block to get a race taken away from them. In an era to where NASCAR is adding venues and taking away races from tracks not performing, with the night race being a hit, the spring visit was far from it.

Crowds dwindled over the years so the track did something to make up for it. A dirt race.

NASCAR is an ever evolving schedule. Not many tracks are keeping two weekend’s anymore. Bristol was lucky enough to be able to keep doing so. The thing is, just Bristol, Daytona, Vegas, Phoenix, Atlanta, Martinsville, Richmond, Talladega, Darlington, Kansas and Charlotte each host two races each season.

But, if you break them down, NASCAR owns the tracks at Daytona, Talladega, Phoenix, Richmond, Martinsville, Darlington and Kansas. SMI owns the rest (Vegas, Atlanta, Bristol and Charlotte). Among the SMI dates, Charlotte went to the ROVAL to spice up their second date. Atlanta did a complete reconfiguration. Bristol decided to do something new with the spring race and to differentiate between the two stops which was adding dirt.

Dover, Texas, Pocono, Michigan and Loudon each lost a weekend lately. Chicago and Kentucky are gone.

With NASCAR constantly adding new tracks now, the dates being taken away are those who host two. With Bristol essentially hosting two of the same race weekend’s and the spring race lacking the punch, they knew it was in danger of getting replaced.

So why not do something different?

While it did in theory do it’s job, they felt like the time had run it’s course. That had to be a difficult decision to make.

The 2021 race was met with high anticipation but mother nature delayed the race to a Monday afternoon. The 2022 and 2023 editions were run at night on Easter Weekend.

Wildly enough, it worked.

Last year, the race produced over 4-million viewers which was up 28% over 2021 and the highest rated Bristol spring race since 2016. The number peaked at 4.5-million which was the No. 2 watched race last season behind only the Daytona 500. Even the Truck race was up 87% from the previous year with 1.1 million people watching on a Saturday night before Easter. That’s a massive number for Easter Night and Easter weekend in general and one that will show that NASCAR had found something.

This year also had a big rating and big crowd. While it wasn’t the end of summer night race crowd, the 3 years were still bigger crowds each year with bigger ratings too. They overshadowed the dying concrete spring race.

However, most of the industry didn’t like it. The drivers hated it. These cars aren’t made for dirt. Windshields and dirt don’t mix. It wasn’t fun for them.

Plus, to be racing on Easter? Not good either.

Even with good metrics, Bristol is moving it back. I consider this another risk because with the Nashville Fairgrounds looking like they could get a future placement on the schedule, if this spring race doesn’t deliver crowds, does that short track come in place of Bristol’s spring date?

That could be why Bristol is helping so much on this cause. Most figured it could come in place of Nashville Superspeedway but that track is delivering big crowds and nice ratings.

Which is why I’m 100% in favor of moving the race away from dirt but know it’s a risk too.