New Bristol takes lean over mean

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- News flash to the NASCAR world: Bristol Motor Speedway is no longer a slam-bang, temper-boiling, dog-eat-dog racetrack.

It has become . . . well . . . nice.

Which could dampen its notoriety.

In the wee hours of Sunday, Carl Edwards, winner of Saturday night’s stunningly tame -- for here -- Sharpie 500, acknowledged there is “going to be a little different type of racing” here.

Newly reconstructed and reconfigured, the concrete racing surface is now three feet wider -- just enough room on the high-banked little half-mile oval to relieve the drivers of being gladiators on wheels.

No longer must they knock one another out of the way, or jam one another through the corners. Nor did anyone climb from his wreckage and gesture angrily and/or obscenely to another he blamed for wrecking him.

“Now you have a track,” Edwards said, “where if you have a really fast car, you can kind of pass people and move around and get to the front.”

Rave reviews were the driver consensus. Tony Stewart, never one to stifle his criticisms, called the reconstruction “an ace job” after finishing fourth.

“This place is awesome,” he said.

But, Stewart added, “I don’t know what it was like to watch . . . “

The jury of 160,000-plus is still out. The verdict won’t come until next year at the earliest.

It will be whether they return in droves to a place that Saturday night had its 51st straight sellout.

For a quarter-century, fans have come to expect metallic slugfests at Bristol, which three times in its history has produced 20-caution races and has led to numerous NASCAR penalties against drivers for angry misbehavior after wrecks.

Saturday night, two drivers, Edwards and Kasey Kahne, who wound up second, led all but 13 of the 500 laps -- Kahne 305, Edwards 182.

It was a parade akin to those on the big, dull, 1.5-mile “cookie cutter” tracks, not this beloved bullring in the Smoky Mountains.

Bob Osborne, the cerebral and soft-spoken engineer who is Edwards’ crew chief, best explained the situation.

“It was a strange race,” Osborne said, “in that we had so few cautions and so many green-flag runs, and I personally like that.

“I like the fact that the track allows a lot cleaner race. The drivers can go out there and compete with the equipment they have, and not have to force their way around other cars -- which [transforms] this [from an] upper-level, good racetrack, to now a spectacular racetrack.”

In the eyes of the racers, that is. But their points of view are from the pits and cockpits, not the towering, bowl-shaped grandstands of Bristol built on the sheer ticket demand for wild shows.

Edwards maintained that “in the big picture this is a transition race,” with the new configuration and the requirement of the Car of Tomorrow design here, and that the excitement the drivers felt will return for the fans.

“You’ve gone from an older style car, and a track that’s been the way it’s been for however many years, to a new-style racetrack,” Edwards said. “It looks a lot the same, but it sure isn’t the same, so you’ve got a new racetrack and new cars.”

And an element as dull-sounding as the compounds of the tires used here may be crucial.

“I think what you saw tonight is only the beginning, based on what [engineers from tire supplier] Goodyear said,” Edwards said. “When they bring out a more aggressive tire, you will see guys coming from the back, and I think you’ll see it shook up a little bit more than you did tonight.”

As a precautionary measure on the new surface, Goodyear had brought a hard compound, with the result that first Kahne and then Edwards could lead for long stretches without their tires wearing much, and without worrying about drivers on fresher tires catching up to them.

Softer tires, Edwards said, “will make it an even more spectacular race.”

If Edwards is right, then the future of the track that has stirred spectators’ and TV viewers’ most primal emotions may hinge on a subject as unemotional as chemical engineering.

Ed Hinton covers auto racing for Tribune newspapers.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The Chase

Nextel Cup standings through 24 of 36 races. After the 26th race of the season, all drivers in the top 12 will earn a berth in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

*--* Pl. Driver Points Behind 1. Jeff Gordon 3,582 -- 2. Tony Stewart 3,233 349 3. Denny Hamlin 3,229 353 4. Matt Kenseth 3,163 419 5. Carl Edwards 3,160 422 6. Jimmie Johnson 3,059 523 7. Jeff Burton 3,054 528 8. Kyle Busch 3,024 558 9. Clint Bowyer 2,944 638 10. Kevin Harvick 2,888 694 11. Martin Truex Jr. 2,887 695 12. Kurt Busch 2,879 703 13. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 2,721 861 14. Ryan Newman 2,704 878 15. Greg Biffle 2,562 1,020 *--*

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Sharp Aquos 500

California Speedway, Fontana

Sunday, 4 p.m., ESPN