No driver input for Bruton

Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M's Toyota, speaks with the media prior to practice for the NASCAR Nationwide Series Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 24, 2012 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

 

Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Toyota, speaks with the media prior to practice for the NASCAR Nationwide Series Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 24, 2012 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Bruton Smith didn’t ask Kyle Busch for his opinion when he decided to grind away two degrees of banking from the top groove at Bristol Motor Speedway.

In fact, Smith didn’t ask for any driver input before embarking on the project designed to correct a perceived lack of action at the .533-mile track.

Asked for his opinion of the changes after finishing third in Friday night’s Food City 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series race, Busch replied with characteristic frankness.

“It’s definitely hard to pass out there,” he said. “I think we all see it on the restarts that everybody is fighting for the top, just trying to root everybody out of the way to get up there and get in a single-file line. It’s frustrating.  It’s certainly not what we all want to see around here.

I felt like before there was a bottom and there was a (third lane up top), and you could even use the middle and you could work a lot around through there. Right now, they brought the top closer to the bottom so it actually hurts the bottom worse, because you don’t have room to move up off the corners and get into the corners and all that stuff. You’re actually to the mercy of the guy on your outside.”

Busch couldn’t resist closing with some vintage sarcasm.

“I’m glad they conferred with all the drivers,” he said.

Greg Engle
About Greg Engle 7421 Articles
Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community. Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.