Since the death of Dale Sr. at Daytona in 2001 and the advent of the 'chase for the championship' system, the whole NASCAR world has lost a lot of it's pull on me. I used to be as big a fan as there was, but a lot of the fun was gone. I hadn't been to a NASCAR race at BMS in many years, so when I scored two suite passes for the night race I was a bit so-so about the whole thing.The weather was typical Bristol race weather, that is, rainy and humid - that much hadn't changed. But there was a whole sea of humanity at the place that night, probably twice as many people as the last time I had been there.
I can remember going to BMS when there were only concrete seats on the front and back stretch, when you could get free tickets for the Busch series race, when the grand National race wasn't even sold out. Times, they are a changing.
The track has a modern stadium feel, very high tech, nice and clean. And the suite was most excellent. The food was hot, the beverages were cold, the seats were comfortable, it couldn't have been better. The sound level of a Bristol race is legendary, but inside the suite it was loud enough to be intriguing, but not much as to be a distraction. The sight lines are magnificent from way up there, the only complaint was that looking thru glass corners can distort certain angles, but I'll take that trade-off every day.Since I had to watch Kyle Busch win, I'm glad I got to suffer through it in a suite.
