The final race of the 2024 Cup Series Round of 16 in Bristol ended up leaving many fans disappointed. The common expectation was that a contest more along the lines of the spring race would play out and create a lot of thrilling drama. However, the 500-lapper featured only eight lead changes and Kyle Larson dominated it completely to lead 462 laps before winning with a 7.1-second margin.
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Despite these common indicators of a lackluster race, not everyone agrees that the event was a bad one. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell is one among them. The 29-year-old finished fifth in Bristol and has qualified to start from the pole in Kansas. He told the press in the Sunflower State, “I was laughing because literally from my seat in the race car it felt like an amazing race.”
Wow…. Has it already been a week since the #BassProNightRace?!?🫢#ItsBristolBaby pic.twitter.com/G55j8Ur3bL
— Bristol Motor Speedway (@ItsBristolBaby) September 28, 2024
“I had no idea that everyone hated it until like a couple of hours after that interview.” The interview he mentioned was his post-race interaction with the Bristol press during which he’d talked about how he enjoyed the race. He continued, “I go back to the start of Stage 3. I literally watched guys run around three wide and I was mind blown whenever people said it was a terrible race.”
The contrast between his opinion with that of the fans left Bell questioning what the definition of a good race was. He underlined that drivers and fans are never going to find common ground on the same. “Drivers are always going to push for something different that is good from our seat and then the fans are going to push for something that’s not good from our seat,” he concluded.
Chase Elliott hits it close to Bell’s opinion
The Hendrick Motorsports superstar finished runner-up in Bristol. He told Frontstretch in Kansas, “I thought it was fun. From my perspective, it wasn’t any different from the last however many Bristol races I’ve run except for the spring [race]. I mean that one was different. Outside of that, I thought it was just like the other events we have had there the past nine seasons.”
The heavy tire fall and the unexpected chaos that the spring race had appeared to be what caused the fans to conjure up high expectations from Bristol. While a similar occurrence would have certainly been a good thing to see, the lack of it did not stop the drivers from having a fun time at the iconic oval.
Short-track racing continues to be a point of contention in NASCAR circles. The officiating body will continue to trial and test different methods to find that sweet spot in which both drivers and fans are comfortable. Elliott, in the meanwhile, faced issues with his engine during qualifying in Kansas and will start from the rear of the field.
