Bristol changes turn up the heat

Races at Bristol Motor Speedway are known for being tough on a driver's patience and even tougher on their race cars. Now the track itself is getting into the action.

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New soft walls at the exits of Turns 2 and 4 at Bristol narrowed the track and could add to the full-contact nature of races.

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New SAFER barriers at the exits of Turns 2 and 4 removed nearly three feet of the race track, and that puts the track in the racing groove for Sunday's Food City 500.

"We use every inch of that race track," Jeff Gordon said. "It is definitely going to be unique. I am anxious to get there and see how many right sides we take off the first hour of practice. It is like anything else, eventually you get used to it.

"Then it's going to come down to the side-by-side racing and how that is going to affect that aspect of it. I think the most important thing is that you are really going to have to get your car working well. Because you narrow the track up, that means it might be a little harder to pass."

For years, Bristol was the most difficult place to make a pass. Drivers used their front bumpers like a pry bar to move cars out of the way.

The half-mile race track was repaved a year ago and that provided enough traction to run side by side. That took some of the full-contact nature out of the race, but the new "soft walls" should end all that.

Now there might not be enough room to run side by side, so everyone expects a lot of pushing and shoving to be the first in line. And that should trigger new rivalries.

The late Dale Earnhardt crashed Terry Labonte on the final lap in 1995 and again in 1999. Labonte crossed the line with a win in 1995 with a destroyed car. In 1999 he never made it to the finish line.

Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch have tangled at Bristol. So have Rusty Wallace and Earnhardt; Rusty Wallace and Gordon; Gordon and Matt Kenseth; Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick; Harvick and Tony Stewart; and Kurt Busch and Jimmy Spencer.

That aggression could return Sunday.

"If you want to see sparks fly, this might be the thing that does that," Gordon said.

Clint Bowyer liked the track better when he could run next to somebody. But he admitted if the fans like the extra action, it's worth it.

"I liked the two-wide racing," he said. "I still think you'll be able to do it. I don't think it will change much. It is going to narrow it up. It seems like the fans, they like the emotion, they like the beating and banging on each other and having to knock somebody out of the way to pass them.

"I'm a big fan of the way the surface is right now; I like being able to run side by side, being able to race your way around somebody. Bristol has always been one of my favorite race tracks, no matter before they repaved it or after they repaved it. I think our fans will always get their money's worth, no matter how wide or how narrow it is."

Reach Don Coble at don.coble@morris.com.