Texas Motor Speedway to place tire packs at five locations

Texas Motor Speedway will present additional safety devices when its racing season begins next week with a NASCAR doubleheader. Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns TMS, began reviewing its facilities after Kyle Busch's hard crash into an unprotected concrete wall at Daytona International Speedway in the season-opening Xfinity race. Busch incurred a broken right leg and left foot and has not returned.

SMI assigned a group of consultants and engineers review TMS' 11/2-mile track on Sunday. They recommended adding 244 linear feet of tire packs in five locations. That includes spaces of 33 feet in Turn 1 and 29 feet in Turn 4. TMS immediately went to work implementing the suggestions, at its expense.

The track expects the tire packs to be installed in time for the first events of the season: the Xfinity O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 on April 10 and the Sprint Cup Duck Commander 500 the following evening. The tire packs are a short-term answer. In the off-season, when the material is available, TMS is expected to replace them with the more advanced and more expensive SAFER barrier. Dallas Morning News