RELATED: Buy tickets for Texas
Following a year that saw both its NASCAR race weekends impacted by rain and track drying issues, officials with Texas Motor Speedway have announced a capital improvement project that includes a repaving of the 1.5-mile racing surface, the installation of an expansive drainage system as well as a reconfiguration of Turns 1 and 2.
Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage said the decision wasn’t a difficult one to make “because you always want to please the fans.
“I think the initial response from some drivers is no (don’t repave) … but they were all here … they all experienced it. It really wasn’t a choice; we need to do this.”
The spring Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas in 2016 was delayed nearly two hours due to rain; the fall event was delayed approximately six hours, finally started under a green/yellow flag situation and was eventually shortened 41 laps when precipitation returned.
The project is expected to be completed by March 1. NASCAR teams are scheduled to return to Texas April 7-9 for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race and Cowboy 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series race.
Gossage said he hoped Goodyear officials would hold a tire test at the track upon completion of the repave. “We are going to strongly encourage Goodyear to test and not just bring a hard tire,” he said. “That will be a mistake.”
However, in a statement released Friday afternoon, Goodyear official Greg Stucker said the tire supplier “will have to bring a new tire set-up” for the race weekend but that “because of the tight schedule, we do not have time to do a tire test.”
Stucker said that similar changes were made at Kentucky last year, and along with the tire supplier’s history over a wide range of track configurations and surfaces, “we will determine the appropriate tire set-up in advance of the event, giving teams plenty of time to prepare.”
The Kentucky repave project also included a reconfiguration of its first and second turns and drainage improvements.
Gossage said that repaving the track also afforded officials the opportunity to drop the banking in Turns 1 and 2 from 24 to 20 degrees, a move that could provide more passing opportunities as drivers should have to lift off the gas and possibly brake more due to the flatter turns.
“Hopefully in time as the asphalt ages the drivers will have to stay out of the gas a little longer, hopefully use the brake some in Turns 1-2 and that sets up passing opportunities in the turns, on the back straightaway and of course now you’re carrying a different speed through Turns 3-4 and hopefully that creates some passing opportunities on the front straight as well,” he said.
“A whole lot of different things going on here, but the big thing … that you’re not seeing is underneath it is this drainage system. Because we want to make sure that we don’t struggle with the issues that weve struggled with last year. It’s not fair to the fans.”
Also, making the changes now means that teams will race on the same surface on both trips to Texas this season, something Gossage said was particularly important given that the fall race is one of the final Chase races.
“We didn’t want to have two different Texas Motor Speedways in one NASCAR season, especially when we were the third Chase race from the end of the season,” he said. “We felt like you need to have the same track when you’re here in April and when you’re here in November in the course of a season.”
No cost estimate was given for the project.
Texas is the second track to announce a repaving project this year. Atlanta Motor Speedway, which is also owned by Speedway Motorsports Inc., will be repaved following the completion of this year’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 slated for March 5.
Graphic courtesy of Texas Motor Speedway
