Weekend That Was: Bristol (cont'd)

Better tires = better race?

There were those who suggested after Saturday's event that softer tires would have made a huge difference.

"Obviously we know they are way too hard," said Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet. "Goodyear knows it and when they come back here, they won't have a tire anywhere close to this. I am excited about when we come back [to Bristol] and we're on the right tire."

Edwards, naturally, joked that different tires "wouldn't have made it better for us." But then he conceded: "I think it could have turned into a spectacular race, instead of where two guys led 490 laps. I think you would have seen more coming and going with [softer] tires."

Edwards led four times for 182 laps; Kasey Kahne, who finished second in his No. 9 Dodge, led three times for 305 laps. No one else led for more than three laps at a time.

Say what?

Winning crew chief Bob Osborne turned some heads with his post-race comments Saturday.

"All the green-flag laps we ran kind of made it an easy race to call for me," Osborne said. "It was a strange race in that we had so few cautions and so many green-flag runs, and I personally like that. I like the fact that the track allows a lot cleaner race.

"The drivers can go out there and compete with the equipment they have and not have to force their way around other cars, which makes this upper-level good racetrack into now a great-to-spectacular racetrack, I think. As far as adjustments and so on, we didn't do a whole lot to the racecar. You'd be surprised at what we actually did -- just a little bit of air-pressure adjustment here and there."

Well, who can blame Osborne for being so pleased? He did less work than usual and earned more money by winning. But his assertion that Bristol made strides in becoming a spectacular track Saturday is absurd. It already was every bit that; Saturday's race did little or nothing to enhance that image.

Pit stops

• By the way, folks, no one is saying the Truck Series and Busch Series races at Bristol were boring. Many e-mailers seemed to think that was the point being made in the aforementioned column, which dealt only with what transpired in the Cup event Saturday night. If the Cup race had matched either of the other two events in terms of drama, everyone would be talking about what a great weekend it was.

• Say what you will about the COT, but it is indeed durable. Nine teams have used the same car chassis in five of the 10 COT events -- and of those teams, three also used the same chassis on road courses. And the No. 29 Chevrolet team of Kevin Harvick has used the same chassis in eight of the 10 COT races.

• Last point to be made on the Bristol Cup race: it's great that so many drivers said they had fun. But isn't the point of Cup racing to put on the best show possible for the fans? If the racing is fun for the drivers but not fan-friendly to watch, who is going to watch and generate the revenue that fuels the sport?

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.