Bumps removed at Kentucky Speedway

Kentucky Speedway

Both off-track and on-track upgrade – Kentucky Speedway's general manager takes pride in knowing his facility is the only one on NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series schedule where the racing will fundamentally change in 2016.

A renovation project underway in Sparta, Ky., will do away with Kentucky Speedway's bumps. But by the time NASCAR returns in July, banking in Turns 1 and 2 will angle steeper than 3 and 4, keeping Mark Simendinger's 1.5-mile oval unique.
So, yes, gone is the "Roughest Track in NASCAR" mantra.

"Exactly what the tagline will end up being, I'm not sure," Simendinger, the GM, said last week during a media stop in Louisville. "Our sub-tagline was always, 'The best drivers love it. Others fear it.' I don't know if that one needs to change."
Since NASCAR's top-level series first raced at Kentucky Speedway in 2011, the track's aging, original asphalt served as a main topic of discussion. Simendinger compared it to a worn-in baseball mitt, saying he didn't want to replace a surface that produced a solid racing product until absolutely necessary.

An unseasonably wet July 2015 race week ultimately prompted track officials to move ahead with a re-pave. Ground water seeping up through the cracks – often called weepers – forced delays even hours after rains had stopped.

"The track basically reared its ugly head this year and told us it was time to be replaced," said Steve Swift, vice president of operations for Speedway Motorsports Inc., Kentucky Speedway's parent company. "… In the SMI family, we have five mile-and-a-half tracks, and we tried to figure out how we could make Kentucky, as unique as it is now, to maintain a uniqueness."

Starting in April, when temperatures grow consistently warm enough to pave, that will become a reality. Banking will bump from 14 to 17 degrees in Turns 1 and 2, while those corners also narrow 18 feet to accommodate a wider area for pit road exit.
NASCAR has scheduled a Goodyear tire test to firm up its compound before stock car racing's top-three circuits – the trucks, Xfinity and Sprint Cup Series – run in Sparta from July 7-9.

Without sharing specifics, Simendinger said Kentucky Speedway pulled in its largest crowd for the 2015 Quaker State 400 since the inaugural running. Kyle Busch battled back and forth inside the final 20 laps with Joey Logano before Busch prevailed, marking one of his wins on the way to his series title.

Aside from that late tussle, the race will be remembered for the successful debut of NASCAR's low-downforce aerodynamic package in place for all 1.5-mile tracks this year. Spoilers will shorten and drag decrease, putting cars' handling back in drivers' hands, just like it was in Kentucky.

"That's the exciting thing about 2016 that we're all looking forward to," said Rick Allen, an NBC NASCAR analyst who came to Louisville with Simendinger. "We know the racing is going to be great." Courier-Journal