Thunder Valley. Once the Mecca of stock car racing is looking a little like the 1962 New York Mets.  Bruton Smith gave away ten Mustangs and still the greatest venue in NASCAR racing was generously only half full.  The Nationwide Series race was maybe a fourth full. A lot of factors played into this, but it wasn’t the racing. Earlier this winter, a friend came to me who wasn’t so good at computers asking me if I could list his tickets on Stub Hub. He had four, but only needed two. The cold, hard truth is that two people in his party had opted out because of the cost of attending a race. Couple that with the last few races that were less than exciting, and the tickets, more valuable than gold a few years ago, were easily found on race day at a discount.

Many might cite the weather. The weather guessers had predicted that it would rain. Some forecasts said there was a 60% chance of rain both days, but both Saturday and Sunday, the weather was in the upper 60’s and lower 70’s and the only rain came at night, but that wasn’t the crux of the problem. As we sat in the middle of the fans on Saturday, the most prevalent theme was competition. Listen to those I talked to.

One fan I’ll call John (not his real name) had been given tickets to the race by his Nationwide Insurance agent, and made the trip from West Virginia for the day. His words rang true. “I love NASCAR, but it makes no difference where your loyalties lie, this race will come down to Joe Gibbs Racing, Penske Racing, and Roush Racing,” he said. “Tomorrow it will be Hendrick or Gibbs. It’s just not going to be a surprise.”

Another factor is the cost of a trip to any venue these days. John said it best. “I spent $100 on fuel just to spend the day. Add to that the $100 for food and I spent more than a day’s work to come here speaks of my love for racing. Wish I could afford it like I did in year’s past.”

Regardless of the economic considerations, both races were the best we’ve seen in years. It was sit on the edge of your seat, never look away racing. Kyle Larson, the author of the big one at Daytona is showing he is the real deal in dueling with superstar Kyle Busch and coming so close in the Nationwide race. The battles between champ Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, and others were the best we’ve seen in years. It almost makes the fans wonder why we don’t have more short track racing. It’s something we won’t see again until Martinsville in a few weeks. This kind of racing allows us to see the raw emotions of drivers like Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. Only six times a year do we see this and that is the problem. Most weeks we see “follow the leader” racing where one driver or team dominates. This was not the case at Bristol. It never is.

So, as we close the chapter on Bristol 1, just ponder this a moment. Joe Gibbs Racing won the Nationwide race and Hendrick Motorsports won the Sprint Cup race. A dark horse nearly won on Saturday, but no one other than the usual suspects were in contention on Sunday. Am I missing something here? Yes, the economy is a factor, but the sport has become predictable. That’s not any different than in recent history, but maybe that’s a factor in why Bristol has fallen so far. Maybe they built too many seats, but there a lot of factors in why this great speedway looked nearly empty this weekend. Maybe it’s time to look deeper. It wasn’t the racing, which was good, and it wasn’t the track, which had one groove (up top, kind of a reversal from the old Bristol where everything was down low). It was a number of things and the answers won’t be easy.