Friday 5: Clash at the Coliseum raises stakes for another NASCAR gamble

The Clash at the Coliseum’s success raises the stakes on another gamble by NASCAR.

The Cup race on dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway.

While the Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum went off with few, if any glitches, last year’s dirt race at Bristol didn’t go as smoothly. Rain muddied the track and postponed the highly anticipated Cup race to a Monday. Series officials had to have a caution every 50 laps because of excessive tire wear. 

The event did not resonate in the way that last weekend’s Clash at the Coliseum has. 

This season, the dirt race at Bristol moves to Easter, a holiday NASCAR traditionally avoided racing on. The April 17 event also will be at night to limit the track drying out as quickly as it did during last year’s race during the day.

How fans respond to this year’s event will play a key role in determining if the dirt race returns to Bristol in 2023.

As NASCAR tries different types of races, not every event will work as expected. David Wilson, president of Toyota Racing Development, says that series officials should continue to try new things.

“The reality is we’ve got to set aside what happened last year with Bristol dirt because this year we’re taking a completely different car,” Wilson said. “I’m not saying it’s definitely going to be better. We don’t know. There is some angst with the new car on dirt, but I do think the experiment is worth revisiting because it’s a different experiment. 

“I do think there is some attraction to dirt and how we can race on it and what tracks might lend themselves to dirt vs. other tracks. I was talking to a couple of drivers, just shooting the breeze (last weekend) and they would have loved to have seen, instead of asphalt at the Coliseum, dirt. If you think