Bristol dirt NASCAR races won’t return in 2024

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emailBy Kelly Crandall | September 15, 2023 12:45 PM ET

Bristol Motor Speedway announced Friday that its two NASCAR race weekends in 2024 will be on the concrete.

“As the motorsports world focuses on ‘America’s Night Race’ tomorrow, we are thrilled to announce Bristol Motor Speedway will host the return of the Food City 500 on the concrete high-banks of the ‘World’s Fastest Half Mile’ in the spring of 2024,” track president Jerry Caldwell said. “We will revive a logo reminiscent of the first Food City 500s in the early ‘90s and resurrect the track’s vintage trademark look and feel of the era. We’re looking forward to a great weekend of racing and what’s to come in 2024.”

The spring race at Bristol has been on dirt for the last three seasons for the Craftsman Truck Series and the Cup Series. There were three different winners on the dirt in both series. In the Truck Series, it was Martin Truex Jr. (2021), Ben Rhodes (2022), and Joey Logano (2023). In the Cup Series, the winners were Joey Logano (2021), Kyle Busch (2022), and Christopher Bell (2023).

“I think NASCAR has done a great job the past several years of trying new things,” Caldwell said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I think as a sport we’ve really embraced that people love our sport, they love tradition, but also love trying some new things, and they love returning to some old ways. Whether that’s North Wilkesboro, whether that’s dirt, maybe it’s the road course in Chicago — all those things are great things, and sometimes you just do that for a little while, and then you change things up and go back to the way it was, and that’s what we’re doing here.

“I think dirt was great. I love dirt, but I think it’s time for us to go back to the concrete in the spring and see what these drivers can do on concrete twice a year.”

Bristol’s dates for 2024 were not announced. NASCAR is expected to release the full schedule in the coming weeks.

Bristol Motor Speedway has hosted two weekends on the NASCAR schedule since 1961. Food City has been the entitlement sponsor of the spring race since 1992.