NASCAR faces new wrinkles in changing surfaces from Atlanta to Bristol
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
HAMPTON, Ga. – NASCAR will go from the oldest racing surface of the 2021 season to the newest in the span of eight days.
Both tracks have teams and fans scratching their heads, not knowing whether to love it or hate it.
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Drivers and teams have begged Atlanta Motor Speedway officials to not repave the 24-year-old track surface until they absolutely have to, though fans wondered if the surface contributed to a race Sunday with its field strung out.
This coming Sunday, NASCAR will embark on its first dirt race in decades, as Bristol Motor Speedway has hauled in 23,000 cubic yards of dirt to turn its cement oval into a temporary dirt track. No one knows how it will race — whether it will be a success or one of those experiments that is a must-see television event for one try only.
If anything, both tracks allow for uniqueness and intrigue, with unknowns when it comes to tire wear at Atlanta and the racing groove at the new Bristol. The conditions of both tracks — and whether they will hold up — is at least in the back of the minds of many people watching.
The Atlanta repave should have been done a few years ago, but because the old surface required drivers to manage tires and gave them options of racing grooves, they didn’t want any changes.
But the time for a repave could be coming soon, and it isn't because Kyle Larson led 269 of the 325 laps Sunday before being passed late by Ryan Blaney for the victory in the Folds of Honor 500.
"I hope it doesn't happen any time soon," Blaney said about a repave after his win. "I think you talk to anybody, they really like this place the way it is."
The worn surface is 24 years old – six drivers in the field Sunday are younger than the surface they raced on. The track operations team has been filling the cracks to extend the life of the track.
"You’re going slower, so it's a little more forgiving just because of the raciness of the race track," Hendrick driver Alex Bowman said of the surface. "You have some huge corrections and still catch the race car.
"That's probably why it gets as strung out as it does. There's really no mechanical grip once the tires are worn out. That's another reason I feel it gets strung out. ... [But] I hope they never repave this place."
The drivers know they will get at least one more race on the worn-out surface. The NASCAR Cup Series visits the track again in July, and there isn’t enough time to do a repave and take into account possible delays, weather and the time for a tire test.
But after that ...
"With it being 24 years old, we are looking at it," AMS General Manager Brandon Hutchison said. "We will look at it after this weekend. We will then focus on [July]. And we’ll take a look at it after that, too.
"We’re looking at it, evaluating it. It will be sooner rather than later, but we don’t have an exact time frame at this point."
The track uses a compound that goes into the cracked areas of the surface and has the ability to flex in really, really cold or really, really wet. When it gets warm, the compound allows the agent itself to flex so it stays in place a little bit longer.
That is what track officials have been doing for several years. They believe they can get at least another 650 miles – 400 miles for Cup and 250 miles for Xfinity – on the 1.54-mile oval in July without any issues with the track coming apart during an event.
"We feel the track is in really good condition to be as old as it is and a safe environment for these guys to come race," Hutchison said.
The question of whether to repave after July could be part of NASCAR's introduction of the Next Gen car in 2022. If Atlanta doesn’t repave, the teams would spend one or two years with the Next Gen car on the old track and then have to throw away everything they learn when the repave happens.
It certainly would be easier on the teams to work on their Atlanta cars with the repave from the start instead of doing work that might be applicable for only a couple of years.
"It doesn’t come into the discussion from the promoter standpoint," Hutchison said. "If you ask the race teams, they like this surface and want this surface to stay as long as possible.
"But it would stand to reason that if you were going to do something to this surface, you may as well go ahead and do it when we’re introducing this new car and learn as much as we can the first time out."
It doesn’t stand to reason with Blaney crew chief Todd Gordon.
"I would keep this surface as long as we can until it starts coming up," Gordon said. "When you get to that, it becomes a safety issue, then you have to address it.
"But until you get to that point, I'd love to race a Next Gen car here on this surface."
While Gordon has a big notebook from 24 years of racing at Atlanta, no one has a notebook on Bristol, as that track will be new for NASCAR.
The track ran six days of racing last week to prepare for the Cup event, but all those cars were dirt-specific race cars.
Ruts and holes in the middle of the track in Turns 3-4 developed after some heavy rains in the middle of the week. Kyle Busch said it made a one-lane race track, with drivers needing to use the bottom in Turns 1-2 and the high lane in Turns 3-4.
How the Cup cars will drive remains to be seen – they are 1,000 pounds heavier than the cars that raced at Bristol last week.
"Those cars are not even close to what we’re going to run," said Busch, who competed in a dirt super late model to get some track time. "It’s just a matter of figuring out the track and feeling the track and getting some visuals."
Austin Dillon won three Bristol races over the course of the week in a dirt late model and was happy with the track for the most part.
"I think they could learn and do some things a little differently to make our cars race better," Dillon said. "The conditions where you can see the track started to get black from top to bottom.
"I think that’s the best our track is going to race. We definitely need to be having those holes. I don’t think our shocks can take it – we’d blow our shocks out."
Those holes will be taken care of, according to Steve Swift, who oversees track surfacing for Speedway Motorsports, which owns Bristol, Atlanta and several other tracks.
Swift said Saturday that they learned a great deal about how the dirt will react to a full day of sun, which is key in trying to gauge how much water to put in the track so it doesn’t get too dusty throughout the day. That could be Swift’s toughest challenge, as the Cup race Sunday is 250 laps and begins in the middle of the afternoon.
The challenges for Swift will then switch to Atlanta and the potential repave. He’ll likely have drivers and crew chiefs in his ear about that next weekend — as much as about the Bristol surface.
"Don't repave," Gordon said. "Don't repave. Don't, don't, don't repave."
Thinking out loud
NASCAR announced Sunday morning that it would not penalize Noah Gragson for backing into Daniel Hemric on pit road during the Xfinity race Saturday, something that could have been considered egregiously endangering crew members. The decision was based on NASCAR's belief that the move was unintentional.
Was it the right call? Gragson never left his pit stall as far as his tires, so in many ways, it is difficult to penalize him. But Gragson’s history of questionable moves on the track doesn’t give him much of the benefit of the doubt in a judgment-call situation, as this one appeared to be.
Gragson should consider himself lucky. The NASCAR officials might not be as kind next time.
Stat of the day
While six different winners to open the season is a first in the NASCAR Cup Series since 2014, it will take time to reach the record: 10 different winners opened the 2000 season.
Social spotlight
They said it
"That was awesome." — Ryan Blaney after his Atlanta win
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!