The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars are headed to Bristol for a race that’s been 20 years in the making.
The tour will be running on high banked, half-mile NASCAR track covered in dirt this weekend in one of the most anticipated races in recent history.
Although, not everyone is extenuatingly amped about it.
“I think it’s cool for the fans,” World of Outlaws rookie Parker Price-Miller said. “I don’t like to bad mouth things. I don’t necessarily agree with going there. I just hope that everyone gets through it safe and no one gets hurt. It’s a fast place, stuff’s going to happen quick.”
Safety concerns are a big topic in and around the haulers that travel the nation on the tour’s 90-race schedule.
Of course, drivers aren’t united in sharing those concerns completely.
Bristol Invitee and Indy Race Parts driver Spencer Bayston says it’s just part of being a sprint car driver.
“That’s been kind of the talk the last few weeks and my whole take is, ‘we’re sprint car drivers.’ There’s a risk in everything we do,” Bayston said. “Yes, I would say that there’s a greater risk at a place like that, but at the end of the day, we are going to go out and do what we love and what we’re built to do. That’s just race.”
Overall, like a few of the drivers, Bayston is excited.
Fans have been wondering what it would look like to see modern day sprint cars replicate the races that Bristol put on for the tour in 2000 and 2001 for some time now.
“I’m excited,” Bayston said. “I know there’s a lot of people a little worried to see what it’s going to shape out to be like. I’m looking forward to the experience. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to run at a place like that. I just hope everyone is able to stay safe and we’re able to go out and have a good time, put on a show for the good fans that will be there, and make the most of it.”
“It’s going to be different for sure,” Price-Miller said. “The speed is going to be faster than any of us have seen. I think the only ones that ran there that are going there is Jason (Sides) and Donny (Schatz), so they’ll have a little bit of an advantage, but it’s going to be wild. Yeah.”
Either way, the 35+ roster of drivers will take to the track for the first time on Thursday night.
The series will host a practice day ahead of the pair of race days slated for Friday and Saturday.
“I don’t know,” KCP Racing’s Gio Scelzi said. “We’re going. I’m going to be on the race track. It kind of is what it is. We’ve tried to make our cars safer with wings and stuff. We’ll find out Thursday, I guess.”
When the World of Outlaws Late Models went to Bristol, the tour got an extra day of testing in prior to the race, as well as some action during the Bristol Dirt Nationals week that ran ahead of the NASCAR weekend.
Thursday night will be the first time that a sprint car even rolls onto the surface.
“It’ll be huge,” Scelzi said of the upcoming Thursday session. “Yeah, I don’t really understand that. I wish we could have practiced before, but we’re not. So, we’ve got Thursday. It will be big for gearing and getting your car right.”
Now, on top of getting the gears and horsepower ironed out on Thursday, teams will be able to alter their cars in whichever way possible to try and limit those safety concerns.
Whatever teams want to reinforce is fair game.
“You can pretty much really do whatever you want thicker-wise on that side of things,” Scelzi said. “They just have rules that you can’t make stuff so thin, so I don’t think anybody would for that race. You can do whatever you want with wings, front axels, torsion arms and stuff like that. If you feel you need to be safer you can go for it.”
The practice night is slated to kick off on DirtVision.com at 4:30 p.m. CT on Thursday.
We might see crews try a plethora of different things, but Stenhouse Jr. Marshall Racing’s Sheldon Haudenschild will take it like a normal race.
“Not really,” Haudenschild said. “They did it however many years ago. I think the safety is definitely (better) than back then. I think it will be good. We’ll just get a feel for it. It’s the same as anywhere else we go I think. We’ll just take it as another race and try and win it.”
Jason Johnson Racing’s Carson Macedo just wants a good show.
“I think it will be fine,” Macedo said. “It’s another big race track. I don’t really see any concerns on my end, but I’m excited. I think it’s going to be awesome. They ran there in 2000 and 2001 and there wasn’t any issues (to my knowledge). I think it will put on a good show. I’m looking forward to it.”
No matter what happens at the track this weekend, it’s sure to be one for the history books.
Fans can keep up with the action live online at DirtVision.com and can follow coverage from ARD all weekend, live at the track.
