March 23, 2012
By Rebecca Gladden
In Season 8 of the TV sitcom Home Improvement, an episode entitled “Home for the Holidays” featured the return of the character Randy, middle son of the Taylor family, portrayed by Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
Earlier in the year, Randy left home to spend a year in Costa Rica studying the rainforest – a move reluctantly agreed to by his nervous parents.
Then, in the Christmas episode, he surprised his family by coming home for the holidays unannounced. It should have been a festive event, but Randy is saddened to see learn that ‘home’ has changed and the family seems to have moved on without him.
Given this realization, Randy seeks the advice of next-door neighbor Wilson. He tells Wilson that he had dreamed about what it would be like to go home for Christmas, but reality isn’t anything like what he had hoped for or imagined.
Randy: I guess it’s like Thomas Wolfe wrote, “You can’t go home again.”
Wilson: That’s very good, Randy. But Frank Baum wrote, “There’s no place like home.”
Randy: What do you think?
Wilson: I think you can go home again, as long as you realize you may not be coming home to the same home.
It is this snippet of dialogue which has been running through my mind all week as I’ve followed the Old Bristol / New Bristol debate.
To paraphrase Wilson, fans can still go to Bristol, as long was they realize they may not be seeing the kind of Bristol racing they once loved.
In March of 2007, Bristol Motor Speedway marked a major milestone with its 50th consecutive Cup Series race sellout. The Monday after that race, the track surface was torn up and repaved – a move deemed necessary by age and wear – and progressive banking installed.
Since then, races at the Tennessee track have been very un-Bristol-like in the eyes of most fans. The track once renowned for beatin’ and bangin’ is now associated with another b-word:
Boring.
The 2007 repave project was supposed to bring about more passing and side-by-side racing - and it did. But, in so doing, it virtually eliminated the hardnosed Bristol battles for position that occurred regularly on the old one-groove track.
“Sometimes when you take something that's really good and you try to make it better, sometimes it doesn't work,” Kevin Harvick said Wednesday. “Obviously, they put a lot of effort into a lot of things trying to make it even better for the fans and for the drivers and for everybody involved. Sometimes things don't work out and you've got to go back to what worked before, and I think what we had there before was what the fans want to see and it was an exciting race. You know, beatin’ and bangin’ like we all grew up racing, so that's what they want to see.”
Visit the Bristol Motor Speedway website this week and you’ll be greeted by a photo of track owner Bruton Smith, who’s asking fans to submit feedback on racing conditions at Bristol:
“Our Chairman, Bruton Smith, has said he wants fan input and opinions regarding the track surface at Bristol... Please share your input via email to.. input@bristolmotorspeedway.com
Early returns indicate that fans are overwhelming in favor of restoring the track as closely as possible to its pre-2007 configuration.
Back on Home Improvement, Randy asked Wilson, “Why did I think time would just stand still? Why did I even want things to stay the same?”
I suppose the answer is that some things really were better in the good old days.
Don’t you agree?
Follow Rebecca on Twitter: @nscrwriter
You can contact Rebecca at.. Insider Racing News
You Can Read Other Articles By Rebecca
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
