The 2021 Bristol spring race was a historic occasion. For the first time in over 50 years, the NASCAR Cup Series held a points-paying event on a dirt surface. It was a race filled with action, wrecks, tight racing, and a few underdogs. When the announcement came mid-race that the dirt would return in 2022, many fans, myself included, immediately got excited. In the end, Joey Logano held off Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suarez, and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. to take the win. However, this historic, fan-favorite, action packed race had one issue: it was run on a Monday.
Every fan knows that rain and NASCAR don’t mix, except on road courses. Rain ruins races, causes scheduling issues for drivers, fans, and media alike, and is generally a nuisance. 2020 proved to be a year of rain and it triggered memes among fans and media personnel. Heck, rain pushed a Sunday afternoon race to a Wednesday evening in 2020. However, one race that is notorious for rain on race day, is the Bristol spring weekend.
Since 2013, five Bristol Spring events have been affected by rain. Aside from the Covid-delayed 2020 contest, most of these races have been held in April, save 2013, 2014, and 2021. The 2020 race was held in May. The 2021 race was held on dirt, so rain would be exponentially worse. Unfortunately, the entire weekend was plagued by rain and since dirt is harder to dry properly than concrete, NASCAR postponed the race three hours prior to the scheduled green flag. The scheduled Truck race was almost moved to FS2, which would have been terrible for viewership.
With the 2022 schedule yet to be announced, I have a modest proposal for what to do with Bristol. For 2021, it was in a stretch of the three short tracks, preceding Martinsville and Richmond. The simple switch would simply be to move it to the end of the short track swing. But that still puts it in the middle of April, and at high risk of rain delays. If we plan too early in the season, we run the risk of a rare snow delay, and if we plan too late, we might end up too close to the summer race. At the same time, we don’t want to interfere with other races or TV obligations.
As it currently stands, FOX has the rights to the spring race. We need to move this race within the FOX portion of the schedule. Any point from February to mid-June will work. Yes, FOX has a July race, but it is the All-Star Race, so we won’t mess with that. Additionally, we don’t want to disrupt the west coast swing or the Coke 600 at Charlotte, so all of those weekends are out of question. I think the best date switch we will get is switching with Sonoma. Sonoma looks better agriculturally in the earlier months of the year, and if Bristol retains a playoff date, it’ll be a far distance between races. Sonoma is inside the FOX window, so TV networking won’t be an issue on the surface. The main issue is which FOX channel the race will air. Bristol is in the initial stretch of races on the main FOX channel. Sonoma airs on FS1 at the close of FOX’s season. Better yet, Sonoma could be run in the rain if necessary as it is a road course. No tv schedule is perfect, but I think this would give FOX, NASCAR, and the fans a little more predictability.
What are your thoughts on moving Bristol to June? Sonoma to March/April? Let me know on Twitter or leave a reply right here on this article!
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