After three years of trying, Bristol Motor Speedway announced on Friday that it would be closing the door on the Bristol Dirt Race, with both of the track's NASCAR race weekends returning to the traditional 0.533-mile concrete oval in 2024.
“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,” said Bristol Motor Speedway President and General Manager Jerry Caldwell. “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.”
In Spring 2021, Joey Logano captured the victory in the inaugural Food City Dirt Race, the first dirt race for the NASCAR Cup Series in several decades. Kyle Busch (2022) and Christopher Bell (2023) each triumphed in the second and third iterations of the event, respectively.
The half-mile dirt oval also played host to the Weather Guard Truck Race on Dirt for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series over the last three seasons, producing three different winners - Martin Truex, Jr., Ben Rhodes, and most recently Joey Logano.
Despite announcing that the Spring event will return to its traditional form - the Food City 500, a 500-lap duel around the half-mile short track - Bristol Motor Speedway and/or NASCAR have yet to officially announce the dates or the series that will travel to Bristol in Spring 2024.
Image Credit: Jonathan McCoy, TobyChristie.com
