With the news that NASCAR has banned testing at its sanctioned tracks for its three national series in 2009, a few people wondered if that might mean increased curiosity in Texas World Speedway, which last hosted a Cup event in 1981.

But if Sprint Cup teams have shown increased interest in testing at the 2-mile oval that is a carbon copy of Michigan International Speedway, they haven't made that known to track president Bill Mather, who hadn't even considered the idea of NASCAR teams visiting College Station until he read a recent magazine article about the testing ban.

Benny Parsons won the final Cup race at Texas World Speedway in 1981.

Texas World Speedway

Race Winners

Year	Winner	Make
1969	Bobby Isaac	Dodge
1971	Richard Petty	Plymouth
1972	Richard Petty	Plymouth
	Buddy Baker	Dodge
1973	Richard Petty	Dodge
1979	Darrell Waltrip	Chevrolet
1980	Cale Yarborough	Chevrolet
1981	Benny Parsons	Ford

"I have been focusing on the testing business but the Autoweek story was the first time I ever thought about NASCAR," Mather said. "NASCAR's a different world to me.

"I've never met anybody affiliated with NASCAR. I'd like to. But I've been focused in on the road racing world. None of [the Sprint Cup teams] have set foot on the track, I can tell you that much."

Built in 1969 and repaved in 1993, Texas World Speedway mainly hosts regional sports-car events, testing for Star Mazda and American Le Mans Series teams and driver education courses. However, a portion of the superspeedway -- particularly 22-degree banked Turns 3 and 4 -- were unsuitable for high-speed testing because of bumpiness. But Mather said a recent 35-foot wide, 2,200-foot long grinding of the track surface in those areas has hopefully corrected those flaws.

"Our oval will be hopefully test ready [by the first of the year]," Mather said. "We've just finished grinding [Turns] 3 and 4, which allows us to run our Grand Prix course, also. Turns 1 and 2 are in pretty good shape. The problem is that our Grand Prix course runs Turns 3 and 4.

"When the grinding company came in, they said to us, 'This is really good asphalt. It's amazing how good this asphalt is for its age.' And that made me happy, because I can't justify the cost of repaving it."

Mather said some spot grinding was also done to Turns 1 and 2. This week, a process known as asphalt rejuvenation will be applied to the banking, a section of the road course and the paddock area.

"You know how if you take a pair of old leather boots and put leather balm on them, it refreshes the leather? This stuff reportedly does the same thing for asphalt," Mather said. "It has a slightly leveling effect -- it softens the asphalt so you can actually roll it and repack it instead of having to do a slurry fix or patching or completely new overlay.

"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.