It feels like deja vu. The Bristol weekend has wrapped up, and here we are still talking about what a poor racing product it was! Remember the last fall race? Kyle Larson led 462 out of the 500; it was a one-man show, and everyone was blaming Goodyear for the tire compound that did not wear a lot. There were just 8 lead changes, and it was just a mundane race overall.

And now, even Kyle Larson is fed up with the same thing happening again and again at NASCAR’s fastest short track! Even this year, the Hendrick Motorsports driver won stage one, won stage two, led 411 laps, and took the checkered flag.

And if we were to talk about lead changes, there were just 4 this time. Alex Bowman led a few since he had the pole start, and Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney led some as they chose to stay out when the field pitted. Other than that, it was, again, a Larson show. And we are back to blaming Goodyear and NASCAR for not figuring out the short track package. But Kyle Larson’s got a solution!

This whole Bristol discussion is thanks to the spring race of last year. Everyone thought it would be the same old race, but it soon became a tire management game. The track that usually starts wearing tires after 100 laps was doing it in 50. And teams went helter skelter. However, the problem was that no one knew what happened, how the tire fall off was so high. Not even Goodyear! “Yesterday (2024 spring Bristol race) was a drastic departure from what we expected.” This is what Goodyear’s director of racing, Greg Tucker, had said after that race.

And neither Goodyear nor NASCAR could produce the same conditions in the two races that followed. And the NASCAR community had high hopes that they would. As it was one of the best short-track races in a long time: 54 lead changes! And after the recent race, many are wondering if the 2024 event will ever be repeated, including Dale Earnhardt Jr. He was in a conversation recently with Kyle Larson. And the #5 driver isn’t too pleased with Bristol either.

Larson said, “I would love to see NASCAR try. For like a long time in the Cup, we had different rule packages every year. Feel like with the next-generation car, it’s become pretty stale. The same thing every year. It’s the same guys up front every week. You kind of predict the race before the race. That kind of makes me less excited about racing next-gen cars.” This feels a bit odd since it’s Larson who’s always the front-runner in Bristol. Especially in the next-gen. He has won twice and has an average finish of 2.8, which is the best among the lot.

So, his saying this is like he’s fed up with leading races in Bristol. However, what Larson is trying to say is that he’d like the race to be more challenging. Look, by now, everyone knows that tire wear is not working out. NASCAR probably wouldn’t change anything in the next-gen for teams to find a gap in the parity. So when the field is so close and tight, the only thing that can be played with is the tire. But Larson’s suggestion is to make it stick more than wear!

“Touching on like Bristol in particular and the tire aspect side of it. As long as I have been racing at Bristol. There’s never been like tire wear. Since we got in the next-gen car, it just doesn’t like, the track doesn’t get as black as it used to. Like the rubber doesn’t stick to the track. I don’t think we necessarily need a tire that’s going to wear. Build a tire that can like stick the rubber to the track. Tires on top of rubber that’s stuck to the track. It just doesn’t grip that we’ll,” He added.

And according to Larson, this would make the cars slide more and go out of control. In turn, it might allow faster cars with better control to pass! And Larson experienced this in the Xfinity Series race! Speaking of which, he has recently bashed the Xfinity Series drivers after their Bristol performance.

Kyle Larson calls out the Xfinity guys!

Larson was attempting a sweep at the Bristol weekend. However, he got a P2 in the truck race and then went on to win the Xfinity one! But like the Cup one, the Xfinity was no challenge for him either; maybe the tires sticking added a bit of it, but none was there from the grid! This led to him calling out the drivers. “It’s fun to kinda get out there with Xfinity guys and show them you know the pace that Cup guys run. Cause they have no clue. Cause NASCAR doesn’t let Cup guys run very often. It’s good when a Cup guy gets in there cause it shows how much work they need to do to be ready for the Cup Series. We had a dominant run at Homestead and another one here. I think that’s it for me this year. We’ll try next.”

While the statement is harsh, Larson means well. Like back in his Xfinity days, most races had Cup guys dominating, and that kind of helped him grow. Like Kyle Busch dominating Xfinity races. But now that NASCAR has a cap on the number of races, Cup drivers can run in the lower series, and Xfinity drivers seem to have gone soft. Each Cup driver can run in 5 races in the entire season. And while NASCAR is trying to be fair to the lower series, they are somewhere compromising on the future of NASCAR. These are the same guys who would run in the Cup, but we see most failing as they don’t experience that same level of competition in the Xfinity Series.

Larson on this said, “This is going to come across very cocky, but I want to embarrass them. I want to embarrass NASCAR a little bit, because they just don’t let Cup guys run anymore. The kids, they probably think they’re in a good spot, and they don’t know where the bar is really at. I like to run those Xfinity races and build up 10-second leads to let them realize they have a lot of room to improve.” 

What do you think, folks, of the Bristol weekend? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.