Interesting read of all of the posts on this thread. This was our 25th year attending the spring race at Bristol. Many things have changed since we first starting going. #1 is the track was owned by Larry Carrier and then sold to Bruton Smith. Bristol probably only seated 45,000 when we first went there. Tickets were extremely difficult to get. Now they have about 160,000 seats. We have been there in good weather and bad with this year being the coldest race day we have endured.

Nothing anyone has said on here would I dispute. Interesting takes that most folks have about NASCAR and the tracks in general. One thing we have noticed, as the crowds have gone down, the friendlyness of the track employees have gone up. It is now over and above what we ever expected to see.

When we first started going to NASCAR races 30 years ago, we attended anyplace from 6-8 per year. That has changed to now only Bristol in the spring and Talladega in the spring. The cost has risen for almost everything and the racing really isn't that good anymore. We have found Bristol & Talladega to be our favorites and our group of guys still enjoy the fellowship and fun and want to continue to go.

It was printed in the local paper last year that the Sunday race drew 100,000 people. I can guarantee that is was about 40-45,000 at the absolute most. This year was worse yet and I can say that 25,000 would be a generous estimate. They didn't bother to insult anyone with an estimate.

I give the track and NASCAR credit for spending a lot of money and time to get the show in. They could of pulled the plug after the first rain delay and nobody would have said much at all. They kept working at it and were finally rewarded with a window of opportunity to get the show run.

This brings me to my last point. I am surprised no one said much on here about the yellow lights coming on near the end. I will guarantee that it was done deliberately to try and end the race on a green, white, checkered finish for TV. Carl Edwards had too big of a lead to let it play out that way. They had two competition yellows earlier during the race and they waited both times until the leader was exiting turn two to display the yellow. Carl Edwards was exiting turn two when the yellow appeared.

I was listening to the scanner and Jimmy Fenning (Edward's crew chief) told Carl that he asked for an explanation from a NASCAR inspector and they wouldn't even talk to him. I switched over to race control and they told Brett Bodine (pace car driver) that they were working on a restart order. Brett told them that they were losing the track and they told him to keep them out there.

Thankfully the racing gods rewarded Cousin Carl with heavy enough rain to preserve a well deserved victory. I am sure that a restart would have resulted into a demo derby and that would have been a costly outcome for many car owners. Again, TV is what NASCAR is trying to satisify not the paying customers at the gate.