Bruton’s Bristol changes failed

If Wednesday night's Truck Series race is a good indicator, grinding the top lane hasn't eliminated the two- and sometimes three-wide racing that fans have complained about since the track was reconfigured with progressive banking in 2007.

Timothy Peters led all 204 laps — the first 82 were under green — before a single-car incident brought out the first caution. There wasn't a time when a driver had to move another out of the way to gain position as was tradition before progressive banking.

Grinding the upper lane was intended to make racing tighter and create more of the beating and banging that Bristol became famous for when the track was the toughest ticket in NASCAR, selling out 55 consecutive races between 1982 and 2010.

It hasn't helped, according to tweets from several Sprint Cup drivers.

"Just as expected. Killing the top groove doesn't make the bottom groove any better," Martin Truex Jr. wrote on Twitter.

Responded Kevin Harvick: "One day they will listen." ESPN.com