Martinsville asphalt repaving project set

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Martinsville Speedway's aged asphalt, which has been in place since the mid-1980s, is set to be replaced, track officials revealed Sunday

However, the concrete portion of the .526-mile oval, which developed three holes during Sunday's race, will not be touched, save for re-assessing and repairing what caused the problem.

ALSO  •  Gordon salvages sixth after concrete collision

The repaving is part of a planned $3 million upgrade project that will also see the speedway add "soft walls" and relocate the railroad tracks behind its backstretch, which have restricted potential growth.

Speedway president Clay Campbell said Sunday night the paving had nothing to do with the pothole that developed in the track surface in Turn 3 just after the halfway point of the Advance Auto Parts 500.

"We actually had talked about it (repaving) and pretty much had the word out before today's activities that we were going to repave the racetrack," Campbell said. "We're coming in (next) Monday and milling out two to three inches of the asphalt portion of the track and going back in with new asphalt.

"That will be on both straightaways and all four turns, above the concrete."

Martinsville has had a combined surface of asphalt and concrete, unique to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, since 1976.

Industry insiders have supported the track's decision to re-do the surface, with the only reservations involving the recent development of two distinct racing grooves.

"I love this place (and) I love what Clay is going to do to it with the repavement," Sunday's race winner Rusty Wallace said. "I didn't see one empty seat out there all day long (because) people love short track racing."

	Jeff Gordon suffered heavy damage at Martinsville after a piece of concrete hit his No. 24 Chevrolet. Credit: Autostock

Nextel Cup director John Darby expressed some concern Sunday.

"It's a 50-50 deal, because they've currently got the track surface right as far as the difference between the top groove and the bottom groove," Darby said. "They've got two very apparent and very good grooves for racing, here, right now.

"The sections of the track that are asphalt are almost insignificant any more, because you're just talking about straightaways and up above where all the racing's done in the turns."

Campbell's contention that the concrete in the turns would not be touched made that concern a moot point.

Campbell said the track's inside lane of concrete was laid by hand in 1976. He said the second groove was a machine laid process done in 1981. Sunday's event was the first problem with the concrete surface here.

"We're fortunate that we haven't had any problems," Campbell said, "but it was unfortunate that it happened today. But at least we were prepared and got the epoxy in there and it set-up like we anticipated it would.

"This absolutely proves that even concrete has a certain amount of unpredictability to it. The hole occurred right in an expansion joint in the surface.

"That concrete's been down there a long time, and the inside lane was laid by hand in 35- or 40-foot strips. That was why we came in there the other year and milled down that bottom groove to smooth it out, because it was fairly rough."

"We ran a 250-lap truck race on Saturday with the same tires and didn't see any indications (of problems)," Darby said. "That's what concrete is, is funny. When it gets weak, it won't really show it to you until it's ready to crumble.

"Brand new concrete breaks and cracks, too. I used to work in high school for a guy that did a lot of concrete work (and) he used to guarantee it from theft and fire, but never from breaking."

Campbell said the track was sensitive to the raceability issue.

"We're just doing the asphalt, and the racing groove in the turns will not be touched," Campbell said. "But what we will be doing is making a better transition from the asphalt to the concrete, going into Turns 1 and 3 and coming off Turns 2 and 4.

"There's a little bit of a bad transition so that will be the only thing that changes. I would really like to go back in and change the concrete portion, but I don't know that that would produce as good a racing as we have right now, because we do have two grooves.

"For a short track to have two grooves is really an accomplishment, so I would be leery of coming in with brand new concrete because maintaining our two racing grooves would be my concern."

Campbell said repairing Sunday's occurrence was a high priority.

"With today's unfortunate deal with the pothole, we're obviously going to go in and see what caused that problem," Campbell said. "And we're going to look at where we think a potential problem may occur in the future.

"That was something that was (unpredictable). We check the track after each date to make sure everything is in good shape, and that was something we didn't see and there was no way that we could predict that was going to happen.

"If we could have, we would have fixed it and it wouldn't have happened. It's unfortunate and I hate it, but the concrete fortunately is in good shape anyway.

"What we'll do is go in and where we put the patch in, we'll cut out a two-foot by two-foot square and put new concrete in it. The patch we put in today is not something we want to have in there the next time, and we may do other areas like that."

Track spokesman Mike Smith said with the railroad relocation, the track had no immediate plans to add seats for its October Subway 500, one of NASCAR's 10 season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship races.

The track's announced seating capacity of 91,000 was sold-out on Monday of Advance Auto Parts 500 race week, the earliest sell-out date on record for the spring race, Smith said.

Following the October date, the track will install Steel And Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barriers, which are either in place or being installed at 15 of 23 tracks that host Nextel Cup Series races.