RELATED: See before and after photos of the Watkins Glen repave
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — The true test will come this weekend, but in some ways, the new pavement at Watkins Glen International has already had its share of trial runs — both for the racing surface itself and the safety systems off it.
A tire test in May, an organizational test last week, and now Friday’s practice before the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series holds its final road course event of the season, Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at the Glen (2:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM). But another true test came with getting the stamp of approval from the man in charge.
“They knocked it out of the park,” said Michael Printup, Watkins Glen International track president, lauding the collaborative effort to freshen the 2.45-mile circuit’s layout, curbing and drainage.
Besides all those laps logged, it’s also had its safety measures put to the test with Brad Keselowski‘s severe crash in Turn 1 during last Tuesday’s opening test day. His Team Penske No. 2 Ford was totaled, and Keselowski escaped without injury. But the Sprint Cup champion was also critical in remarks last weekend at Pocono Raceway, saying that the inherent danger of the Glen’s opening corner — a sharp, 90-degree right-hander at the bottom of a hill — was an accepted but steep risk with potentially dire consequences.
Those comments struck a sour tone with Printup, who cited similar nose-first accidents in the same corner — by Jimmie Johnson in 2000 and Denny Hamlin in 2011 — where the safety system in place did its job. The track uses a combination of the SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barrier system and tire-pack barriers in front of the Armco steel guardrails.
“We’re glad Brad walked away. We’re not happy with the comments, to be blunt,” Printup said this week. “I think we all believe he was out of line because if that was anything but Armco and tire barrier, it might’ve been — as he put it — the one out of 1,000. That is by far the best (barrier). …
“At 90 degrees, the worst thing you can hit is SAFER, but it’s only tube steel for 10 inches and then an 18-inch gap and then it’s cement wall. That cement wall would’ve never have moved for Jimmie or Denny. Who knows what it could’ve been. But by far, I think Brad just doesn’t understand the engineering part of it, and the engineers will tell you that at 90 degrees, tire barrier and Armco is by far the safest.”
Safety mechanisms were just part of the assessments made in the $12 million offseason project, which Printup said had been debated for at least five years before proceeding. The effect of New York’s harsh winters and pounding from competition had yielded nearly annual patching projects. When engineers noticed an advanced degradation in the layers of the asphalt, Printup said the time had come.
What ensued was a group effort between NASCAR, paving experts at Lane Construction, International Speedway Corporation and Watkins Glen’s team. The result was an ultra-smooth surface that will host stock-car racing for the first time this weekend.
“About a year ago, NASCAR really started to get into the foray of understanding the asphalt, said Jerry Kaproth, NASCAR’s manager of race track infrastructure. “Otherwise, it’s always been left to the experts to do their own thing independently. This is the first year we’ve really started to track some of that. The cooperation between the organizations has never been better and part of that is we have enough insight from our consultants to know a little bit and to ask the right questions.”
The early reviews — muddled somewhat by the necessary use of a harder-compound Goodyear tire for durability’s sake — have been largely positive. Printup said that drivers participating in the tire test in May found no dramatic changes aside from the curbing layout in the bus-stop chicane on the backstretch. The curbs, he said, were rebuilt to the same specifications, but extended length-wise at the corner’s entry.
“You’ll recall some of the exciting racing that’s gone on in the bus stop where they’re cutting the corners — they’re hitting dirt and grass, and it was getting dangerous because they were basically digging a hole, which then can upset the car or slice a tire,” Printup said, adding that track crews were tasked with patching and refilling the gaps multiple times through a race weekend in the past. “It all adds up to the right thing to do.”
The recent repaving covered not just the 2.45-mile portion of the track used by NASCAR series, but also the 3.4-mile configuration that includes “The Boot” layout of turns used in IMSA and IndyCar events. Tony Stewart, readying for his final Watkins Glen start, raced the longer circuit during a ride-swap here with Formula One star Lewis Hamilton in 2011. After the experience, Printup said Stewart grabbed him by the shirt, saying, “Dude, we gotta race the boot.”
Printup said he’s had informal discussions with NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell about making that happen. He said that one of the only drawbacks would potentially be a reduction in lap count to achieve the same distance, meaning drivers would make fewer appearances at the track’s different vantage points, but said that as a self-professed “road course guy,” he’d love to see the longer configuration get its own test.
“I would love to take a hard look at that and see, can we do the K&N race, can we do XFINITY down there,” Printup said. “I don’t think it would be right to just jump to the (Sprint) Cup cars, in my opinion, but man, I would like to see sometime in my tenure, I would love to see NASCAR in one of those three or four series run the boot. I think it’d be great.”
