Once again folks got enamored by the drivers who had experience on dirt tracks and figured they were the shoe-ins to win the Bristol Dirt Race.
What, I believe, people missed was that the guys who had experience on dirt, didn’t have experience in cars as heavy as the Cup cars. So, for those drivers, there was an element of having to unlearn some of what they knew.
For the rest of the drivers, with virtually no, or limited, dirt experience, they didn’t know what they didn’t know. And, when it was all said and done, look who was at the front. With the exception of Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., it was guys who almost nobody was talking about leading up to the event.
And, the one-off, dirt ringers? Much like the old road-course ringers, by and large they were in cars they had no chance of winning in.
There’s a reason guys like Joey Logano are champions in this sport. They take pride in their craft, and where they find weaknesses, they work to improve. You can’t afford to go into a weekend knowing you won’t be good….not if you want to win a title.