Bristol on schedule for NASCAR's long awaited dirt racing return

It's not the first time the owners of the half-mile, highly-banked concrete oval have covered their track in dirt, but it will likely be the most anticipated.

In the 2000 and 2001 seasons, Bristol used 14,000 truckloads of dirt to cover its concrete surface to host World of Outlaws races.

However, the undertaking this time is even more unusual as NASCAR typically does not race on dirt.

The most recent Cup Series race featuring stock cars on dirt took place in Autumn 1970 on a track at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.

The Truck Series has made an annual stop at Eldora Speedway's dirt surface since 2013 until the COVID-19 pandemic scuttled the 2020 race.

This latest project remains on schedule with an early-March finish date for its conversion and fans can continuously follow the progress on a live Web cam.

Working on Turn 3

Live Cam https://t.co/Y8XxjmCcI2#ItsDirtBaby #ItsBristolBaby #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/CMWXJgi7AZ

— BristolMotorSpeedway (@BMSupdates) January 13, 2021

"We are going to have varying thickness (of dirt). We couldn't just put a layer of dirt down right on top of the concrete because that would be way too steep for the dirt races and would create way too much speed," said Steve Swift, owner Speedway Motorsports' senior vice president of operations and development.

"We've shallowed it up and we will be at 19 degrees when it is all said and done. The thickest fills will be 9ft and 10ft and our smallest fill will be a foot.

"It's never a great time to place dirt in the middle of the winter. So far we've been blessed.

"We are way ahead of where we thought we would be with the weather and we are on schedule and pushing forward."

The Pinty's Truck Race on Dirt and the Cup Series' Food City Dirt Race will comprise BMS's spring NASCAR weekend in 2021.

Taking full advantage of its dirt conversion, BMS will host the Bristol Dirt Nationals March 15-20, the World of Outlaws Bristol Bash April 8-10 and the World of Outlaws Bristol Throwdown April 22-24.

More details of the NASCAR weekend have come out in recent weeks. The race weekend will be one of just eight this season which will feature practice and qualifying.

In addition, NASCAR also announced the stage lengths of both races - 250 laps for the Cup event (stages of 75-75-100 laps) and 150 laps for the Truck race (stages of 40-50-60 laps).

While the pandemic still rages on, the facility has already sold out its socially-distanced crowd allotment of 30,000 fans for the 28 March Cup race.