NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — The ongoing and stunning refresh of North Wilkesboro Speedway from the stock-car ashes added another chapter this week, debuting fresh asphalt for the first time in more than 40 years. Thankfully, Cup Series drivers reported that the pavement kept some of the character that made the historic 0.625-mile track distinct.
William Byron, Ty Gibbs and Joey Logano put a variety of Goodyear tire compounds and constructions to the test Wednesday in the first of two days of Cup Series sessions ahead of the NASCAR All-Star Race on May 19. Wednesday’s sunny session came after a single day of Goodyear testing held Tuesday for the Craftsman Truck Series.
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The early reviews were generally favorable from the Cup Series trio, who noted how drastic the change was from last year’s All-Star Race, held on an abrasive asphalt surface that was last installed in 1981. That surface was patched and prepped to withstand nearly a week of racing last May, with the plan all along to start anew in the fall.
“They did a good job. There’s still some character. It’s still a unique-shaped racetrack, which is all good,” said two-time Cup Series champ Joey Logano. “There’s a pretty big bump down into Turn 1, I think, where the wall was out too long, and they cut it, and it’s kind of an interesting area, and there’s a huge bump leaving (turn) four, which really kind of upsets the cars. I don’t think that’s bad. I’m OK with it. That’s something that made this race track so cool in the past is that you had a lot of character, it’s bumpy, and you’re forced to move around them because it was challenging. You make the thing like glass, I don’t know if that really makes the racing better. So I think the fact that it’s got a couple of bumps and some areas where drivers can make mistakes and jump out of the groove and do different things, it’s just going to promote passing. That’s a good thing.”
Logano said that the thicker-gauge tire used during last weekend’s Cup Series race at Phoenix served as the control tire. A run earlier in the day produced a one-second falloff after a 25-lap stint, “which I thought was really good,” Logano added, saying that the control had the most wear. “That’s probably the direction that the majority is pushing, I think at this point. We’ll probably make some verification longer runs tomorrow, but so far everything seems like it’s going as planned.”
No lap times were provided since the test fell under Goodyear’s jurisdiction, but Logano noted “we were hauling ass” with the speed he found in the new pavement. Byron laughed and seconded the sensation, saying: “It seemed like ‘mash throttle, mash brake.’ ”
Byron noted that drivers were hesitant to venture outside of the preferred racing line, finding other areas of the track dusty and not rubbered in. The Daytona 500 winner said that it would take time for the groove to widen out, but that short tracks tend to regain their personality quicker than other ovals, drawing the comparison to events at Richmond Raceway after it was last repaved in 2004.
“I vividly have seen some of those races and I feel like it was pretty treacherous,” Byron said. “A lot of guys would get in crashes or there’d be a lot of restart wrecks, so I think the racing could actually be pretty exciting with a repave on a short track. But yeah, it won’t have the style of like comers and goers, I don’t think. I think it’ll be the guys who are up toward the front will be racing hard, and there’s probably just going to be more wrecks.”
New pavement or not, the rugged speedway that’s stood here since the 1940s continued to provide all the nostalgic feels, on a day with “chamber of commerce” weather that track promoters bask in. The track’s return to Cup Series racing last May for the first time since 1996 was a celebrated part of NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season last year.
Logano hopes the place can keep that solid, old-school mojo going when the All-Star Race returns in just more than two months’ time.
“This place is cool,” Logano said. “For me, I remember coming here, I guess it was five or six years ago when it was shut down, and we shot a couple of videos here. It was a ghost town. There was graffiti everywhere, there was weeds growing through the race track. I mean, it’s crazy. It was like the world ended, and no one’s been here since the last race. You walked in the infield care center … there were stretchers in here still, and it was kind of creepy, but it’s kind of crazy to see all that and what Marcus Smith and (Speedway Motorsports) have done, I think to restore the race track, but keep the feel, they did a tremendous job.
“I know they had to repave. I think every driver doesn’t ever want to see a repave, but it’s coming apart. You’ve got to do something. We patched it, we got through last year. I don’t think you can get lucky that many times before you’ve just got to bite the bullet and do it. But I do think when you come up here, it’s just a different vibe than any other race track you go to when you pull up to it, it’s cool. Where you’re at, you’re in the mountains, man. It’s just a unique facility. And I think last year the fans showed up and appreciated it and thought it was really cool, and I would expect this year, you’re probably gonna have a similar crowd and hopefully we’ll deliver again and keep that hype.”
