TBK-Light.com

I'm seriously wondering if that's going to work, they should have just torn the thing up and put it back to spring '07 standards.

Well, so much for the $1m changes. Can't imagine this grinding would cost a fraction of that. Also, what will the grinding do for the surface grip on the top lane, increase or decrease it compared to the two grooves below it which won't be grinded?

I think it'll be fine. Just makes the lower lane a little more important.

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I could have sworn someone posted a photo of the track with yellow lines on earlier? (which is what my post above is responding too).

That bloody Paul Ricard track photo must have caused me hallucinations...

http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/cup-bristol-motor-speedway-to-tighten-racing-grooves/

If you look in the pictures what they're doing is exactly what I said. They're just grinding away the top part of progressive banking to make the banking even from the bottom to the top.

The bigger problem is something brought up on the speedtv boards. Ticket prices. So, I looked at the prices for the night race. The cheapest ticket is $75. Screw that. Been to enough Cup races to know that, like the NFL, they're better at home on my couch.

I'll spend my money where I get far more bang for my buck... $11 for a reserved seat, top row of the grandstand at my local short track.

Bristol tickets are probably the most expensive on the circuit... Ours face value are $109. But, I get them for free... :-)

You have to take into consideration, with instant ticket downloads these days, prices fall dramatically as the event date draws near. Went to a Yankees game last week, buddy got our $20 tickets a week in advance, the tickets in our section the morning of the game... $2

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Keep in mind that it's 24-27-30° from bottom to top and they're only shaving 3° off the top. Going by this article, it will be even from middle to top while the bottom will still be at 24°, possibly making the middle the groove to be on.

http://www.buildingspeed.org/blog/2012/ ... -distance/

Free tickets are best tickets.

The manager at the bowling alley my dad used to work at always had tickets to all three races on Daytona 500 weekend. He'd usually only go to the 500 though so he'd give us tickets to the truck race, as long as we scalped the Busch series tickets for him.

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The degree of banking in the middle lane is probably closest to the original Bristol surface. 26/27 degrees from top to bottom seemed about right. I wish it was evened throughout, but oh well.

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In an interview on Sirius Speedway today, Tony Stewart made a really interesting point (IMO). He said now that Bruton has caved under fan pressure and altered the track, everyone that bitched needs to sack up and buy season tickets for the next few seasons at Bristol.



It's kind of embarrassing for NASCAR, this whole situation. People can beat around the bush all they want, because the bottom line is we've had to alter a racetrack because there weren't enough crashes. That's really the only reason, because the surface was intact, the track was safe, and the racing was better. Only real change: huge decrease in crashes.

Depends on how you define "the racing was better." Cars were more easily able to pass, and that resulted in fast cars moving forward and slow cars dropping back without much challenge involved. You could put them on a track twice as wide and that would give them even more room to pass, does that make the racing even better?

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What is better racing is definitely a subjective thing and especially in NASCAR where you have such a huge variety of tracks with different flavors of racing. The Bristol flavor was a unique one that was lost and replaced by vanilla with the 2007 reconfig imho. I hate to use the term artificial racing but when you got as much as 6° more banking on the top, that's artificial racing right there.


I wish that were the case too. Well, atleast the option is still open, maybe he will grind the bottom to 27° too in the next 'update'..

Make it a dirt track (a real one, not what they did back in the late 90's.) All problems solved.

Onboard footage from the newly repaved Pocono.

[youtubeidiot]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__HzxdRXC_0[/youtubeidiot]

Are they running trucks and cars at the same time?

Some serious speed he carries into turn 1...

I still love the layout of Pocono but the race will probably suck with rock hard tyres able to do 500 miles

The races are 400 miles this year

Speaking of ticket prices; I drove from Orlando at 3am Saturday morning to Talladega in time for Cup qualifying and the CWTS race, found a hotel 20min from the track, got up in the morning and spent the day at the track and was there for the Good Sam 500 and made it back home at 2am. I spent $120 for Truck/Cup tickets in Birmingham tower around row 50, and $80 with my friends military discount for the room we stayed in Saturday night. So $200 with accommodations for a Talladega weekend.

So yeah, I'd say Bristol is way overpriced.

I think that's kind of common to be honest. No real reason they can't run together on these Goodyear tests. Not really many vehicles out there to cause an issue anyway.

And yeah, that is a ton of speed he carries not just into T1, but all the way through as well.

Martinsville is even better, for the October race this year, cost me $40 for my Cup ticket and I think it's $25 for Truck tickets, can not wait to fill up on hot dogs.