Texas World Speedway sits silently during testing ban (cont'd)

"We're trying that this week on the 22-degree banking where it undulates. You can't go 100-plus mph where it undulates. We've smooth-ground it, but we've made it so smooth that it's slick. This asphalt reconditioner is supposed to bring that back up."

Mather, a commercial real estate developer, has a long-term business plan in place for Texas World Speedway: making the track accessible for a variety of racing operations.

"My view of Texas World Speedway is to make it a professional support system for the racing industry," Mather said. "That's for the guy who's turning a wrench on the car he's built in his garage, from the bottom up, up to the guys who have amazingly fast cars that people love to pay money to watch. So I don't have the design to bring in a NASCAR-sanctioned event, for a variety of reasons. But I do want to be that strong support system, if that's tire manufacturers or whatever."

According to Mather, the track is busiest on the weekends. What he'd like to see is more activity Monday through Friday.

"We have 43 weekends of business, and perhaps increase that to 45, but if I can get people to come in during the week and test, that's where we can really increase our revenue," he said. "I want to rent my track to anybody if they can write a check, quite frankly.

"If that's ALMS, if that's NASCAR, if that's Star Mazda, if that's SCCA club racing, they will have my attention. But I have to admit, I don't know the NASCAR world."

The current ownership group purchased the speedway a little more than a year ago. Now Mather's ultimate goal is to protect his current long-term relationships while adding new partners to the mix over time.

"We're going to own this track for a long time," he said. "And I want to position this thing as still taking care of our current business. Yeah, if the oval works, that gives us a great advantage over a lot of other road courses. If I'm going to do that, it's going to come down to relationships and service."

NASCAR ran eight races at Texas World Speedway between 1969 and 1981. Three of Richard Petty's 200 career victories came on the 2-mile oval situated approximately 100 miles northwest of Houston. In 1980, Cale Yarborough won a 400-mile race that featured no caution flags.

Also, Mario Andretti set the world closed-course speed record at 214.158 mph while qualifying for an IndyCar event in 1973, a record that stood for 12 years.