A NASCAR Track That Used To Suck!
Track problems may not be a problem after all
by Greg Engle
Drivers took their first laps today and although Bobby Hamilton spun and destroyed his primary car and Jeff Gordon scraped the wall during the first practice session the sessions were relatively clean with Elliott Sadler leading the first session and Jimmie Johnson leading the second and the overall sessions with a speed of 193.216 which is faster than the current qualifying record set by Ryan Newman of 192.988 this past May.
Tony Stewart spoke out earlier in the day and he seems to now think that the problems that he and others experienced in testing may not have been anything that may still be lingering on the track or even as a result of work that Lowes officials did on the surface. Stewart said that the surface was ‘1000% better’ during the Busch test after rubber had been laid down the week before by the Cup cars.
“I pretty sure that’s not going to be as big of an issue as it was when the Cup cars test ran here, “Stewart said. “They had a car show here that weekend before and there wasn’t any rubber on the track when we all went out there, nobody had been on the track yet, running cars around there. So even though it had been reground nobody had been out there yet. I give Humpy (H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler track president) credit as much as I filleted him and gave him a hard time about how he’s ‘ruined’ this racetrack, the thing is he hasn’t just said “hey, I’m not going to do anything’, he took what we had and tried to make it better, you gotta’ give him credit for trying to make it better for this race. I think a lot of it is because it was such a green race track after being freshly ground and after a car show and you know if you have old cars sitting around, you can’t tell me that none of them were leaking any oil on the racetrack so with that being said I think the racetrack is probably a thousand percent better condition this weekend then it was when we tested.”
Jeff Gordon, who didn’t participate in either test session here, seems concerned about tires. “It’s very fast and has a lot of grip,” Gordon said referring to the track, “but I’m more concerned with tires more than anything else. The speeds are going to be so great and the track is so abrasive and we just built up a lot of heat, especially in the right front tire, so that’s my concern. Anytime you speed up the corners the way they have here it’s going to make passing a little bit tougher. I was pretty happy with the track here in May, I liked it and from what I’ve heard from in testing is that, yeah there were some wrecks but all in all everybody feels like the track’s a lot like it was in May and feel good about it.”
Mark Martin seems to think that there won’t be any problems with Saturday nights running of the UAW-GM 500. “They’ve made a huge effort to try and make it better, “Martin said.” and it’s a lot better than it was. It was in very poor shape when we came here to test,” Martin added.” So far so good.” I really wish that we could go back to before we ever touched it, but it’s in good condition and hopefully, we’ll see.”
Rookie Carl Edwards was one of those who didn’t test, he said that he was nervous coming to Lowes, but has relaxed after practicing both his Cup and Busch Series cars. “I was pleasantly surprised, “said Carl Edwards. “I think the track is really awesome right now. The whole thing is fast right now. Even though it’s faster it easier for me to keep control the racecar.”
Thanks to Greg Engle - Cup Scene Daily - The Voice Of The Nascar Nation for the assist on this issue of NASCAR Wrecks
Mark
www.NascarStockCar.com
by Greg Engle
Drivers took their first laps today and although Bobby Hamilton spun and destroyed his primary car and Jeff Gordon scraped the wall during the first practice session the sessions were relatively clean with Elliott Sadler leading the first session and Jimmie Johnson leading the second and the overall sessions with a speed of 193.216 which is faster than the current qualifying record set by Ryan Newman of 192.988 this past May.
Tony Stewart spoke out earlier in the day and he seems to now think that the problems that he and others experienced in testing may not have been anything that may still be lingering on the track or even as a result of work that Lowes officials did on the surface. Stewart said that the surface was ‘1000% better’ during the Busch test after rubber had been laid down the week before by the Cup cars.
“I pretty sure that’s not going to be as big of an issue as it was when the Cup cars test ran here, “Stewart said. “They had a car show here that weekend before and there wasn’t any rubber on the track when we all went out there, nobody had been on the track yet, running cars around there. So even though it had been reground nobody had been out there yet. I give Humpy (H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler track president) credit as much as I filleted him and gave him a hard time about how he’s ‘ruined’ this racetrack, the thing is he hasn’t just said “hey, I’m not going to do anything’, he took what we had and tried to make it better, you gotta’ give him credit for trying to make it better for this race. I think a lot of it is because it was such a green race track after being freshly ground and after a car show and you know if you have old cars sitting around, you can’t tell me that none of them were leaking any oil on the racetrack so with that being said I think the racetrack is probably a thousand percent better condition this weekend then it was when we tested.”
Jeff Gordon, who didn’t participate in either test session here, seems concerned about tires. “It’s very fast and has a lot of grip,” Gordon said referring to the track, “but I’m more concerned with tires more than anything else. The speeds are going to be so great and the track is so abrasive and we just built up a lot of heat, especially in the right front tire, so that’s my concern. Anytime you speed up the corners the way they have here it’s going to make passing a little bit tougher. I was pretty happy with the track here in May, I liked it and from what I’ve heard from in testing is that, yeah there were some wrecks but all in all everybody feels like the track’s a lot like it was in May and feel good about it.”
Mark Martin seems to think that there won’t be any problems with Saturday nights running of the UAW-GM 500. “They’ve made a huge effort to try and make it better, “Martin said.” and it’s a lot better than it was. It was in very poor shape when we came here to test,” Martin added.” So far so good.” I really wish that we could go back to before we ever touched it, but it’s in good condition and hopefully, we’ll see.”
Rookie Carl Edwards was one of those who didn’t test, he said that he was nervous coming to Lowes, but has relaxed after practicing both his Cup and Busch Series cars. “I was pleasantly surprised, “said Carl Edwards. “I think the track is really awesome right now. The whole thing is fast right now. Even though it’s faster it easier for me to keep control the racecar.”
Thanks to Greg Engle - Cup Scene Daily - The Voice Of The Nascar Nation for the assist on this issue of NASCAR Wrecks
Mark
www.NascarStockCar.com
1 Comments:
Silly ol' me posts my predictions for each race based on the astrological aspects of each of the Chase Contenders and the latitude longitude of the track location, when work was last done on it...etc...
I have been pretty right on so far.
I've predicted this week that the race will be fast, wild and messy.A few other prediction and natal charts and 6 month forcasts of the 10 drivers are located on the blog and within the archives. Mr. Gibbs might want to take a look at Tony's. It is very interesting.
http://churchofthegreatoval.blogspot.com
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