NASCAR: Teams face Bristol reconfiguration

For the third time in nearly a decade, Bristol Motor Speedway has undergone a change to its racing surface, and that has added an element of mystery to the Bristol night race on Saturday.

Track officials applied a VHT traction compound to the bottom groove last week in the hopes that it would return the high-banked half-mile to its former one-groove (on-the-bottom) glory. A series of reconfigurations in 2007 and 2012 transformed the track into a multi-groove facility and then to a single groove up against the top.

Those changes coincided with a steep decline in attendance and growing fan animosity. So the track acted to give fans what they wanted.

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The VHT largely did what it was supposed to do on Wednesday night in the Camping World Truck Series race. Drivers largely ran the bottom, but the outside groove did start to gain speed as it collected rubber in the second half.

Sprint Cup veteran Carl Edwards expects similar results Saturday night.

"I'm excited about the prospects of having multiple lines but having the (primary) line be on the bottom because that's a lot of fun," Edwards said. "The first couple of times I drove at Bristol, those years were really fun because if you're on the bottom and slip up, you have a window.

"If you're running the top and everyone is following one another, you can't really go between them and the wall. You can't make anything happen. So yeah, having the bottom line and having multiple lines makes this a much more dynamic race."

So it's kind of like old Bristol, but kind of not, with an outside groove that might or might not produce side-by-side racing similar to that from 2007-12. In fact, there is a clear black line on the bottom of Turns 3 and 4, but Turns 1 and 2 have an equal amount of black on both the top and bottom.

However, if a majority of teams decide to run the bottom, that will kick rubber marbles up the track and make that line even more unstable. So the total package is a dynamic never before seen at Thunder Valley.

Kyle Larson said he wishes Bristol had never changed anything from what they've had over the past several seasons. He has a notorious reputation for wanting to run against the wall at most tracks, and Bristol was no exception.

"Right now I would say the bottom has got a little bit more speed than the top – at least for the first 10 laps," Larson said. "After that, I don't think the top is that far off. The top still has a way to go before it's right ... I think once three and four gets a wider entry and you can get up in the grip earlier, you should be able to run about the same lap time on the top as the bottom."

Regardless of what kind of racing the latest changes produce, Edwards simply appreciates the mystery. He finds it refreshing to unload at a race track and not know what to expect. He believes it's a challenge befitting of the best teams in stock car racing.

"It makes it more interesting," Edwards said. "The problem solving of this sport is really a lot of the fun of it. They could put jumps and fire rings and I think it would be a blast to navigate it. There's an excitement in going to a new place or running a different package. It's good.

"This is about problem solving and that's cool."