BUY TICKETS: See the races at Texas
RELATED: Full schedule for Texas | Stage lengths for Texas
As NASCAR heads west this week to the Texas Motor Speedway’s newly paved 1.5-miler in a month otherwise filled with short track races, teams will have plenty to reconsider about the track itself — the first intermediate venue since Las Vegas on March 12.
The Fort Worth high banks have been partially reconfigured and received the first new paving since 2001. The bumps long associated with portions of the track are gone. The banking in Turns 1 and 2 has been reduced from 24 degrees to 20 degrees — and the racing surface in that section has been widened from 60 feet to 80 feet – while Turns 3 and 4 will remain at 24 degrees of banking.
And while there has not been a tire test on the new surface, Goodyear has assured it has tires ready to go.
“I’m glad we’re going to get some race cars on the track and let’s see how it goes,” Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage said Wednesday. “One of the drivers said to me, ‘It’s not supposed to be easy,’ and I do agree. It does throw a curveball at them and that’s OK.
“I’m just anxious to get drivers and race cars on the track. It’s been finished for almost two months.”
Jimmie Johnson, winless so far this season, will obviously be eager to see the new look when teams arrive for Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The reigning seven-time Cup champ has won five of the last nine Texas races and his six victories here and 1,023 laps out front are best all time.
RELATED: Texas stats for Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers
“I know best efforts are put in place to create an asphalt and tire combination that will really work well together and have some age in the surface,” Johnson said. “I’m very optimistic that we are going to show up and sure it’s going to be fast and maybe a little more single-file than we want to get started, but Texas has a lot of banking. It’s a very fast track.
“The entrance to the corners is a little sharp, but what is really sneaky about it is one corner exit you run out of room quick. The angle off the turn can really get your attention. With the faster speeds we will run there, I wouldn’t be surprised if guys are caught out on corner exit hitting the wall.”
RELATED: A first look at the Texas repave
In fact, Johnson’s entire Hendrick team may be the best to judge the new looks and feels of the facility. Not only is Johnson the most celebrated winner there, but his teammate Chase Elliott won his first XFINITY Series race on the track in 2014 and has a pair of top fives in his rookie Cup starts at Texas last year. Kasey Kahne won the Cup race from the pole position in 2006.
Of similar good fortune, Hendrick driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored his first Monster Energy Series victory at the track in his first start there in 2000. He was runner-up there in his last start last Spring and has four consecutive top-six finishes in his last four starts here.
“You never forget where you won your first race, and neither do your fans,” Earnhardt said. “So I always look forward to coming here. This is a track that really puts on a good show.
“Before the repave, it was a very wide racetrack where you could use a lot of different lines and it was so much fun. I think the track will still be that way. This place is going to maintain its character and personality. The asphalt is new but it’ll age with the weather out here and the environment, it’ll speed up that process.”
The weekend’s schedule will include an extra hour of Monster Energy Series practice time to allow teams some additional time to familiarize themselves with the track and the tires. The speedway has been working around the clock for the last two months to work in the new surface.
Not only were almost 20,000 tons of asphalt used for the complete repave on top, a French drainage system was installed underneath including 24,000 linear feet of drainage tile and ditches.
“It’s not a sexy subject, but it is an important subject,” Gossage said. “If you take care of the show everything else will take care of itself.”