What's Up With Bristol?

Bristol Motor Speedway used to be one of the toughest tickets in professional sports. The track's August night race used to sell out years in advance. The Tennessee bullring has always been a fan favorite.

So when the track reported only filling 102,000 seats on Sunday, the lowest turnout for the track since Nascar began taking headcounts in 2003, everyone was left to wonder: What's wrong with Bristol?

Track president Bruton Smith blamed the weather, saying early rain showers hurt walk-up attendance which, Smith said, accounts for "3,500 to 4,000 tickets." That may be, but attendance has never been the same since the 2007 season.

That was at the onset of the current economic crisis which has hurt attendance at all tracks, not just Bristol. Fans simply can't afford $80 tickets, hotels that offer rooms at obsene rates and are about an hour away from the speedway and gas prices that are approaching $5 per gallon across the nation. Despite what Obama and his chronies would have you believe, this recession is not over.

2007 also marked the year that Bristol was resurfaced and reconfigured. This was the year that Speedway Motorsports Inc put progressive banking into the track to promote more side-by-side racing and discourage the beating and banging that made the track so famous.

This is most likely the smoking gun. Fans want to see drivers beat, bang and lose their tempers. They want to see a bump and run for the win. They want to see Jeff Gordon shove Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt spin Terry Labonte for the win. If fans want to see three wide, side-by-side racing with almost no action, they'll get tickets for California or Las Vegas.

Bruton Smith has announced a plan that may involve returning the track to its previous specs in hopes of boosting attendance. He and his SMI team will make a decision by Friday about whether or not to change the track and that any changs will be made in time for Nascar's return to Bristol for the track's night race in August.

Smith also said that they are listening to the fans and what they want, which is great. But had they done that to begin with, they would have never reconfigured the track to begin with.