Bristol loses its identity, racing turns into a snoozer

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- It was Lap 200 of the Sharpie 500 on Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, and members of the local Emergency Response Team stood at the ready.

Well, not really.

One sat in a golf cart, dozing off. This guy actually was falling asleep while 43 Nextel Cup racecars roared through Turn 3 right in front of him, maybe a couple of football first downs away.

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Was this really the night race at Bristol?

Where were the sparks? Where was the electricity? Where was the banging that made this place so famous?

This is the track where Cup cars always go bump in the night. Or at least they always used to.

That wasn't the case Saturday night. Working multiple grooves on a newly resurfaced track in Cars of Tomorrow that are here to stay for all Bristol races in the foreseeable future, the Sharpie 500 quickly presented itself as a curious show.

There was plenty of side-by-side racing, as drivers took their cars two-wide and three-wide -- sometimes running right next to each other for laps at a time. That seems like, in theory, it should have made for an exciting race.

But for the most part, it simply wasn't. As much as it hurts to say this about Bristol, the Wrigley Field of stock-car racing and a Mecca for all those who enjoy the sport, the race was, as the ERT member could attest as he fought to keep his eyes open, more than a little on the boring side.

One veteran media member said he had never seen the drivers in such a good mood before the race. They all loved the new track, loved the way they could move their cars all over the place on it.

And before it was over, many were even speaking lovingly of the same COT vehicle they had ripped when the first COT race in history was run back at the venue in March. That included driver Denny Hamlin, who had to bow out early when the engine in his No. 11 Chevrolet caught fire and failed him on Lap 212, causing him to spin out and wake up the ERT guy at least momentarily (watch video).

"We can get excited about this, about how we ran, because we really didn't know what we were going to have going into today," said Hamlin, who had to start at the rear of the field because of an engine change made before the race and had worked his way all the way up to seventh when the engine went. "For our car to perform the way it did today was amazing. I couldn't be happier to drive it. I could just go anywhere I wanted to with the thing, and it would go."

And because they could go anywhere they wanted to go in the cars they once claimed were uniformly ill-handling and no fun to drive, they were able to stay out of each other's way. If it hadn't been for rookie David Ragan carrying the yellow caution flag banner almost all by himself (he spun out three times without any help from another competitor), there would have been almost nothing to even occasionally force the crowd of 160,000-plus to the edges of their prized Bristol seats.

The race began with a long green-flag run. On a track where the record for cautions in a 500-lap race is 20 (three times, last during the August night race in 2003), the first yellow didn't fly until Lap 127. If Ragan could have ceased and desisted from running into the wall all by his lonesome, there would have been even longer green-flag runs later.

As it was, there eventually were nine cautions covering 61 laps during a race that once featured a total of 167 caution laps.

Not that caution laps make for a great race. They don't. But long-time race promoter Humpy Wheeler, president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway, once explained that the greatest appeal of stock-car racing was the fact that it was akin to watching a bunch of folks trying to put on a high-wire act at high speed -- with no safety net underneath to catch them if they fell.

Lap-by-Lap

Carl Edwards clinched a spot in the Chase with his win at the newly-resurfaced Bristol Motor Speedway. Check out all the lead changes, pit stops and cautions from the Sharpie 500.

• Lap-by-Lap, click here
• Race Video, click here

"Keep the net there and it's not as interesting to watch. Take it away and suddenly everybody is at the edge of their seats the whole time they're watching," Wheeler said.

Apparently, the resurfacing of the concrete at Bristol ended up serving as the dreaded safety net more than the good folks who run the facility intended. But most of the drivers appeared to love the new style of Bristol racing that hard-core fans are likely to be slow to embrace if it's here to stay.

"I think a lot of it is just this racetrack," Hamlin said. "Guys can move around, so you don't have to run into each other to make a pass. You know, really I think that's why you were seeing the long green-flag runs like you haven't seen here before. Some guys were kind of worried about points. This race seems to be a little more tame each year. We saw last year was kind of the same way. Really I think it's just the layout of the track that's making us go green so long."

Tony Stewart, who finished fourth, gushed like he had just finished a dirt race at his beloved Eldora Speedway.

"I hope the fans had as much fun watching this race as I did driving in it," Stewart said.

Others, such as driver Greg Biffle of the No. 16 Ford, weren't as enthusiastic.

"It's OK," said Biffle, who finished 10th. "It's pretty good racing, but it's not old Bristol."

No, it's not. Yet Hamlin even went so far as to insist that the new, calmer Bristol is in no way a bad thing for the sport.

"I think it's a great thing," Hamlin said shortly after taking his early exit. "I think at the end of the race, you're going to see two-wide and three-wide finishes somewhat like you did [in the Busch race Friday] night. It might be a little boring toward the middle, but you're going to have a great finish."

There was that hope, right up until the end. But it never really materialized. Eventual winner Carl Edwards basically drove away from the rest of the field in his No. 99 Ford over the final laps (watch video).

And the ERT guy presumably was plenty rested when it came time to pack up and head for home.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.