Twenty-three thousand yards of red clay have been packed together to create the dirt race track at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Food City Dirt Race on March 28, the first NASCAR Cup Series dirt race since 1970, per SBJ's Bret McCormick.
Speedway Motorsports Senior VP/Operations & Development Steve Swift took a crash course in northeast Tennessee red clay last year. He attended races at a half-dozen dirt tracks in the Smoky Mountain portion of the state, collecting advice on how to assemble Bristol’s track. Tony Harper, who oversaw track renovations at Talladega and Bristol, was a key figure in the design efforts, while Baker Construction, a local Bristol outfit, hauled in the dirt -- around 1,400 truck loads -- to create the 50-foot wide track atop a layer of sawdust.
The project stayed on schedule and was completed in about 13 days spread over January and February, though a wet winter meant additives were needed to keep the soil moisture right. “We were a little bit over but not dramatically over,” said Swift.
