Someone may want to restrain Kevin Harvick because it’s official: the NASCAR Cup Series will return to the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt for another night race in the spring of 2023.
BMS President and General Manager Jerry Caldwell made the announcement in the form of a statement released on Tuesday.
“I’m so thankful for our owners, Bruton and Marcus Smith, for allowing our Bristol Motor Speedway team to put on an amazing Easter celebration and NASCAR race weekend that exceeded our expectations with strong ticket sales and primetime viewership on FOX,” said Caldwell in the statement. “Bristol Motor Speedway will prepare for a spring night race on dirt in 2023, giving the fans two great NASCAR shows on different surfaces. The dates for our NASCAR events will not be available until later this year. To guarantee the best seats for more amazing dirt racing next year, guests may contact the ticket office or visit our website at BristolMotorSpeedway.com to renew their tickets today.”
While the date of the event was not officially revealed in the statement, you have to wonder if an Easter date return will be seen as the holiday race date led to the best television viewership of any NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway since the spring of 2016.
Sunday night’s NASCAR Cup Series Food City Dirt Race recorded a 2.19 television rating and averaged 4.007-million viewers, despite being halted twice due to rain.
The @51FIFTYLTM ratings are in from Sunday's #NASCAR Cup Series Dirt Race at Bristol… and they were UP. Sunday's race scored a 2.19 rating and registered 4.007-million viewers. Up from a 1.8 rating and 3.1-million viewers for Bristol Spring 2021. pic.twitter.com/8JD9W8yhcc
— TobyChristie.com (@TobyChristieCom) April 19, 2022
Last year’s NASCAR Cup Series Dirt race debut, which was held on Monday during the day after rain washed out the event on Sunday, scored a 1.8 rating and averaged 3.1-million viewers.
Sunday’s race also topped last year’s race No. 9, which was Richmond Raceway. Last year’s spring race at Richmond scored a 2.0 rating and averaged 3.3-million viewers.
The incredible turnout of fans watching the race on television this weekend, were treated to an incredible finish of the race. Tyler Reddick looked poised to score his first-career NASCAR Cup Series win until Chase Briscoe made contact with him on the final lap, which spun both drivers from the top-two spots.
Kyle Busch would scoot by for the race win off of turn four.
