{"id":38446,"date":"2022-04-14T13:30:33","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T18:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=38446"},"modified":"2022-04-18T20:17:34","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T01:17:34","slug":"nascar-weekend-preview-bristol-motor-speedway-dirt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/14\/nascar-weekend-preview-bristol-motor-speedway-dirt-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Preview: Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer<\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

Shift to night race will change the dynamic on Bristol dirt<\/b><\/p>\n

Among the many changes affecting the second Food City Dirt Race at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Track, the move from day to night for the race is perhaps the most significant.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, leads the field during the NASCAR Cup Series Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 29, 2021 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The sentiment toward the move has been universally positive. Drivers are anticipating a more traditional dirt race when they take to the half-mile track on Sunday night (7 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a great thing moving this event to night,\u201d said 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott, who started 26th and finished 10th last year in the premier division\u2019s first dirt race since 1970. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to help a lot with the issues we had, keeping some moisture in the track, hopefully, and then obviously keeping the dust down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everything we learned last year has been a great tool of how to go about it this season. It seems like we\u2019re doing all the right things, and hopefully it will be a good show. I think it has a lot of potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

The transition to a night race isn\u2019t the only major difference. Drivers and crew chiefs will have to adapt to the new Next Gen race car, which was introduced into NASCAR\u2019s top series this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to try a blend of last year\u2019s car and the Next Gen car,\u201d said Rudy Fugle, crew chief for William Byron, the only two-time winner in the Cup Series so far this season. \u201cWe have some notes from the NASCAR test they did last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference with dirt racing, though, is how fast the track conditions change. They change just about every lap.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, the track construction itself is different from that used for last year\u2019s inaugural race. Instead of a consistent incline from the bottom to the top of the track, this year\u2019s version uses graduated banking\u201416 degrees at the bottom to 19 degrees at the top\u2014in hopes of creating a viable second racing lane.<\/p>\n

Joey Logano, a driver with severely limited experience on dirt, was the surprise winner of last year\u2019s race. Theoretically, a night race will help the track retain moisture and is more likely to favor such drivers as Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson, who grew up racing dirt cars and continue to maintain a strong presence in that discipline.<\/p>\n

Larson and Bell were racing near the front of the field last year when they collided on Lap 53 of 253, leading to finishes of 29th and 34th, respectively.<\/p>\n

The starting order for the Food City Dirt Race will be set during a series of four 15-lap qualifying races on Saturday. The Cup event, scheduled for 250 laps, will be the first held on Easter Sunday since Rusty Wallace won at Richmond in 1989 in a race postponed from February because of snow.<\/p>\n

Buddy Kofoid set to make national series debut in Pinty\u2019s Truck Race on Dirt<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Buddy Kofoid couldn\u2019t ask for a better set of circumstances for his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut.<\/p>\n

The 2021 USAC National Midget Champion will race for the first time in one of NASCAR\u2019s national series when he takes the green flag for Saturday night\u2019s Pinty\u2019s Truck Race on Dirt (8 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Kofoid will be driving the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota that carried Martin Truex Jr. to victory in last year\u2019s race. Crew chief Mardy Lindley will defend the win he engineered for Truex, who isn\u2019t competing in the Truck Series event this year.<\/p>\n

Kofoid also has some worthy potential advisers\u2014including one of his teammates in midget racing at Keith Kunz Motorsports.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely, the main person that I\u2019ve talked to is Christopher Bell,\u201d Kofoid said. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten to know him a little bit better these last couple of years, and I\u2019ve hung out with him before and raced alongside of him as a teammate in the midgets.<\/p>\n

\u201cGot to know him pretty well, and hopefully he can help me out a little bit this weekend. He didn\u2019t really give me advice yet\u2014there are also some other people I want to talk to. At least for him, I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll talk more at the track, but it was more reaching out to see if he would be open to being an extra guy on the radio for me during the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kofoid may be the most notable newcomer, but the Pinty\u2019s Truck race on Dirt also will feature a quartet of Cup Series drivers doing double duty: Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Austin Dillon and Harrison Burton.<\/p>\n

Dillon won the inaugural Truck Series dirt race at half-mile Eldora Speedway in 2013. Logano triumphed in last year\u2019s Cup event on the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Track.<\/p>\n

They will all have to beat dirt modified ace and full-time Truck Series driver Stewart Friesen, who tested the Next Gen Cup car on dirt both at Lancaster (S.C.) Motor Speedway and at Bristol last week. Friesen won the last Truck race at Eldora in 2019.<\/p>\n

Three-time series champion Matt Crafton, who fields his own dirt modified car when not racing trucks, also is a former Eldora winner (2017).<\/p>\n

NASCAR Cup Series<\/b><\/p>\n

Next Race: Food City Dirt Race<\/b><\/p>\n

The Place: Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt<\/b><\/p>\n

The Date: Sunday, April 17<\/b><\/p>\n

The Time: 7 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

The Purse: $7,374,089<\/b><\/p>\n

TV: FOX, 6 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio<\/b><\/p>\n

Distance: 125 miles (250 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 75),<\/b><\/p>\n

Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 150), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 250)<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/b><\/p>\n

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series<\/b><\/p>\n

Next Race: Pinty\u2019s Truck Race on Dirt<\/b><\/p>\n

The Place: Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt<\/b><\/p>\n

The Date: Saturday, April 16<\/b><\/p>\n

The Time: 8 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

The Purse: $599,224<\/b><\/p>\n

TV: FS1, 7 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio<\/b><\/p>\n

Distance: 75 miles (150 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 40),<\/b><\/p>\n

Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 90), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 150)<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service   Shift to night race will change the dynamic on Bristol dirt Among the many changes affecting the second Food City Dirt Race at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt Track, the move from day to night for the race is perhaps the most significant. The sentiment toward the move […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":33014,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[177,16],"class_list":["post-38446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-bristol-motor-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/GettyImages-1309824587-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-a06","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38446"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38448,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38446\/revisions\/38448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}