Lipstick doesn’t make a cute pig, nor can the sidewalk fix Texas Motor Speedway. So reigning champion Kyle Larson has a solution to the problems on the track hosting Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff race.
“It needs more resurfacing,” Larson said Saturday. “I wish they demolished this place first. Then start over ”.
No, Larson doesn’t have an engineering degree. But he has two eyes and enough laps on the Fort Worth track to offer expert advice.
Texas Motor Speedway got fresh asphalt five years ago
Texas Motor Speedway made its debut in 1997 as a 1.5-mile intermediate oval, with Jeff Burton winning his NASCAR debut there. It became a semi-annual stop for the Cup Series in 2005 and remained so until 2020. The track lost its regular season date last year, but remains on the playoff schedule at least until next season.
When officials resurfaced the TMS in 2017, they also lowered the incline at Turns 1 and 2 and widened the race surface. It has since been a source of criticism from riders and fans alike.
“They did a terrible job with the initial reconfiguration,” said Kyle Larson, who won an Xfinity Series race in 2016 and the Cup Series playoff race last fall. “I’d like to see them change it from a mile and a half to something shorter, I don’t know if that means incorporating the straight or something.”
“I mean, if I could build a runway, it would probably be a three-quarter mile Bristol basically. Sidewalk, progressive bank and all the rest ”.
Kyle Larson asks for the impossible
Like Texas Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway is owned by Speedway Motorsports. Atlanta’s 1.5-mile track is showing some big changes from last season, but the designers have taken the opposite path from what Texas did five years ago. They developed more lean cornering and narrowed the track, forcing NASCAR to apply its super speed rule pack for both races this year.
On the other end of the spectrum, Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California will receive a review closer to what Kyle Larson would like to see for TMS. The two-mile oval should be redone as a short track, clearing the surrounding land for commercial development.
Converting TMS in this way will not happen, at least not quickly and easily. This is because grandstands, club suites and a condominium tower surround the track.
