Bristol's Reputation for Nights of Hot, Exciting, Rubbing and ####ing is No More.

Bristol at night is a race that NASCAR fans have always looked forward to and lusted for.

Bristol is a fast, sexy girl with a very naughty reputation. Everybody wants her. She's the
toughest ticket in NASCAR.

It looks like things may be different now.

Maybe it is the COT dropping speeds by a second a lap. It could be the hard rubber. Or it might be the banking reduction surgery. Then again, maybe it has to do with the black dyed concrete replacing the blacktop and the extra three feet. Or it could just be all of it put together (though the Craftsman and the Busch races were both typical Bristol slug fests -- so it is probably the car and the tire).

But the hot and heavy rubbing, ####ing and excitement we've all come to think of when we think Bristol just wasn't there last night.

The first 126 laps were all green flag racing. That doesn't happen at Bristol.

Everyone was on their very best un-Bristol like behavior.

Even Juan Pablo "Crash" Montoya and Kevin "Happy" Harvick were playing nice with each other. Late in the race, running nose to tail and side by side, they had a great opportunity to mix it up Bristol style, but they decided to just give each other plenty of room.

The passion, the excitement, the raw emotions, the flying sparks and heavy contact that get us all worked up when we think Bristol just weren't there anymore.

Here is what it was like....

Imagine that Maxim Hottie "F Da Eagles" Heather from New Orleans tells you she wants you to come over to her place (actually, I'm certain many frequent Black Flag readers do imagine this on a regular basis).

At this point, you have certain ideas as to what is going to happen.

You get to her place, and you don't even get to see Heather. Instead, you are instructed by the disembodied, unenthusiastic voice of Rusty Wallace to have a seat and wait patiently.

It's not what you were thinking, but you were counting on things being a bit freaky. So you just do what you are told. After a while you start to doze off.

A few hours later, still no Heather (by the way, I'm a big fan of anyone who hates the Eagles enough to get on national TV during a FOX Sports NFL Game wearing the shirt she did).

The suddenly, a laughing Bruton Smith (the owner of Speedway Motorsports which operates Bristol) and Brian France (President of NASCAR) come stumbling out of the back room. They thank you for your business, they appreciate you stopping by and tell you it's all over now and it's time for you to go.

That is the kind of quality let down NASCAR fans had watching the 2007 Sharpie 400. An amazing beauty is suddenly just plain.