Around the Track: Lowe's Motor Speedway

This week, Jeff Burton addresses how the grinding exercise at Lowe's Motor Speedway might affect the racing -- and the effectiveness -- of Richard Childress Racing's No. 31 Cingular Chevrolet on Saturday night.

There are a lot of unknowns about Lowe's Motor Speedway as we come there this weekend. We went there in the spring and had an all-time high number of cautions. We hope it's not like that, this time.

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They ground the racetrack in the spring and now they've gone back and ground it again, so it's much smoother than it used to be. It seems like the middle of the racetrack is where people wanted to run in testing, which changed everything.

The back straightaway is still very rough -- they didn't grind that and it has a lot of bumps. But Turn 3 they did grind and it's very smooth and it seemed like it had a lot of grip.

In Turn 4, it seems like there was a tremendous amount of grip and you could really be in the gas hard. But the problem is, when you had grip you had it and when you didn't, you didn't -- there was nothing in between.

I saw a lot of cars spin out by themselves when they would lose grip and just lose the car.

There are a lot of unknowns about Lowe's. I think everybody is very nervous about this race. A lot of people tested because so few people had successful nights there the last race.

Everybody has circled this as a racetrack that is a potential problem.

There was an all-time high for cautions and it was a very, very long race in the spring because of all the cautions and I think everybody is very nervous about it.

This track is very, very difficult to get a handle on as far as handling. The temperature makes a huge difference and we'll practice during the day, and we won't get as much nighttime practice as we'd like to and this track changes more than any racetrack we go to.

So having a car that will handle well at the start of a run as well as at the end of a run is very, very important to be able to run well here.

Overall, I think the surface is a huge question mark. The speeds are way up and they are going to be way up for sure.

I'm not sure how their effort to make a multi-groove track is going to work out. Only time will tell.

Around the TrackJeff Burton and EASports take you for a lap at Lowe's Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

I do think that rubber on the racetrack is going to make a huge difference. When we started running there during the test the track surface was very dirty. The Auto Fair had been there the week before so, I think that had a lot to do with the problems and the wrecks.

We did see some tire problems because the track was so much faster than people had anticipated. We'll see what happens.

Right now, the track is not perfect by any means, but gosh, I just wished they never changed it. I mean, I think that in an effort to help it, they haven't helped it.

The racetrack was good the way it was. I just don't think they should have changed anything. Humpy is trying to do the right thing and I give him a tremendous amount of credit for trying to make it better but, in this case, I think he tried a little too hard.

Having said that, without a doubt, the racing will be good and competitive.

No matter what the racetrack is, no matter what they do to the surface or if people like it or not, it's still going to be a good race. That's just how it is.

Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 31 Cingular Chevrolet, will take fans Around the Track each race week during the 2005 Nextel Cup season.