BRISTOL, Tenn.– Dirt was in the air as the Karl Kustoms Bristol Dirt Nationals continued for the second weekend in a row, giving racing fans another chance to see dirt on the high banks of Bristol Motor Speedway.
When Speedway Motorsports, LLC, first announced their plans to convert the track to a dirt surface for the annual spring NASCAR race, many fans were left confused and unhappy with losing a concrete race at the track; however, the temporary surface has created many opportunities for the track to provide fans with racing outside of NASCAR.
The XR Super Series and the World of Outlaws saw an opportunity to bring racing to a track that is both unique in design and history, as the track had been temporarily converted to dirt in 2001 for the World of Outlaws series. Bristol has long been a race track only associated with NASCAR, its major series, but thanks to the efforts by Speedway Motorsports that is starting to change.
The XR Super Series is first up on the dirt schedule for the track, giving fans a first look of the year at the dirt surface and what type of racing to expect.
Cold and windy summarizes the weather on Friday and Saturday, but the racing kept fans heated in the stands.
With three features offered on Friday, fans were given their money’s worth with intense speed and hard racing as the hobby stocks were up first. Popular YouTube personality, Cleetus McFarland was in the field for this event. Following an accident during practice, his car did not have the speed to compete in his dirt track debut. Driver of the #7b, Eric Stanton, took the checkered flag and won $5000.
The sport mods were next with another $5,000 to the winner. This event featured the defending Bristol Dirt National champion, Maguire DeLong, who was unable to maintain the crown as the #2G of Brock Grunwald pulled away from the field and captured victory.
The final event of the night was the first ever Super Series Late Model feature in the series and offered the winner a $50,000 paycheck. Fifty laps of high speed dirt racing warmed up the crowd as the driver of the #44, Chris Madden, took the flag and the large payout to close the night out.
As the wind tore through banners around the track on Saturday, attendance looked as if it had tripled from the night before.
Offering one more event from the night before with the 602 crate late model feature, fans saw the #615 driven by Colton Trouille fend off the #C11 of Cody Courtney to achieve victory.
The Modifieds were up next as temperatures dropped. Low temperatures were nothing new to the winner of the event, Sir Lawrence O’Connor, from British Columbia.
By the time the stock cars took to the dirt, the sun had set and the wind was roaring with the engines when the driver of the No. 20v, Dustin Vis, piloted his car to victory.
The feature of the evening was another 50-lap, $50,000 to the winner in the Super Series Late Models.
What looked like a possible repeat performance by Chris Madden took a tumble when he qualified in 14th position. Madden didn’t have enough time to move through the field, and it was Chris Ferguson’s No. 22 that took home the trophy and the $50,000.
With two weeks down, one more weekend of Bristol Dirt Nationals remain before the focus will shift to NASCAR’s visit during Easter weekend, April 16-17.
