Weather has impacted Texas Motor Speedway before, but never like this.
Lightning struck the facility’s infield road course during a weekend storm, creating a large hole that sent asphalt spraying — some as far as 150 feet, a TMS spokesman told the Star-Telegram of Fort Worth.
This is why we don’t race with lightning in the area, folks! Our road was struck in a lightning storm last night. pic.twitter.com/jxBzC33yug
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Texas Motor Speedway (@TXMotorSpeedway)
September 16, 2016
Crews were busy at work Monday morning patching it. The infield road was the only area of the track hit during the deluge — “Bog Hoss,” the massive, 10-story tall video screen, was unaffected.
The infield road course sits on the inside of the track’s 1.5-mile oval, which was not struck by lightning. The track will host the second race in the Round of 8 of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup on Nov. 6.
The track’s Twitter account had a bit of fun with the incident, too.
Where there’s lightning, there’s … ‘Smoke?’
Initially we thought it was a lightning strike but we’re unable to confirm the whereabouts of Lil’ Smoke last night. pic.twitter.com/vqGEWbAgbq
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Texas Motor Speedway (@TXMotorSpeedway)
September 16, 2016