Photo Credit: Justin McFarland
In an effort to inject some additional excitement into the XFINITY Dash for Cash races, those four events will feature heat races, like the events that you see at your local short track.
The teams will qualify as normal – odd qualifiers going to the first heat, even qualifiers going to the second heat. Each heat will be 50 laps in length and the finish will be the order that their respective row lines up for the 150 lap main event.
Each of the drivers are looking to taking part in the Dash for Cash events and racing at Bristol Motor Speedway, though the new format certainly has crossed their minds. Daniel Suarez is hoping to be successful as the half-mile has always treated him well, the sight of a pair of top-five finishes last year, though admits that the heat races are going to shake things up.
“Alot of people are going to be racing, a lot of people are going to be just being smart to be safe for the main race,” he said. “Whatever is going to happen, I don’t even know what I’m going to do. I’m going to go out and race, but I what I do know is we’re going to have some extra time on the track so it’s going to be fun, too.”
His teammate Erik Jones thinks it’ll be exciting and different for the fans, but is holding back his opinion as a driver till he’s officially taken apart in it this weekend.
“I’m most curious about how people are going to race knowing that you can’t go to a backup car before the feature, so I’m interested to see how people handle that fact,” he offered. “I think it’s a good idea – something to change it up. I think we’re doing the right thing and taking the right steps to doing things that have been voiced by the fans that is something different than what’s been done in the past.”
The format also has Ryan Reed excited as he feels good about the ability to return back to his roots of racing on the short tracks in California, where heat races were something that were run weekly to set the field for the main event.
“Bristol is a tough track regardless and then you throw in heat races and give us one more opportunity to go out there and tear up the car before the end of the race is gonna be challenging,” he added. “I know we talked a lot about it this week and it’s really interesting because obviously you want to be able to start the main event with a clean race car, but then also too if you’re in a position to qualify for the Dash 4 Cash you’re gonna want to get aggressive and do that, and then if you win two of these Dash 4 Cashes you’re locked into the Chase, so that puts another element in there that really adds a lot of pressure and adds some pressure to go out there and get it done. But I’m just really excited.”
