{"id":14432,"date":"2018-01-22T19:54:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T01:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=14432"},"modified":"2018-01-22T19:54:00","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T01:54:00","slug":"tweaks-to-charlottes-road-course-should-make-playoff-race-faster-more-intense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/01\/22\/tweaks-to-charlottes-road-course-should-make-playoff-race-faster-more-intense\/","title":{"rendered":"Tweaks to Charlotte\u2019s road course should make Playoff race faster, more intense"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

CONCORD, N.C. \u2013 Get ready for a road-course Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race<\/a> on a layout unlike any other.<\/p>\n

\"\"

NASCAR driver Kurt Busch manuevers the number 14 car around the new Roval road course during Goodyear tire testing at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 18, 2017 in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo by Bob Leverone\/Getty Images for NASCAR)<\/p><\/div>\n

That, at least, was the way reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr. put it.<\/p>\n

When he tested on the Charlotte road course in October, Truex described the road course\/oval track hybrid as \u201call kinds of craziness going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was before the track made tweaks to the 2.28-mile course that should make it faster and more intense, lopping as much as 20-seconds off the time it takes to negotiate the 17 turns that make up a lap, Speedway Motorsports Inc. CEO Marcus Smith said on Monday during the kickoff for the NASCAR Media Tour hosted by Charlotte motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to bring racing action that fans have not seen before in a speedway setting,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHere at Charlotte, you\u2019re going to be able to see all of the racing\u2014and in the form of a road course. It\u2019s going to be a huge challenge for the drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of confidence that we\u2019re going to have one really, really excited person at the end of the Bank of America 500 (the Sept. 30 Round 1 cutoff race in the Cup Playoff) and a lot of others who are not very happy at all. That\u2019s the way it is. Victory Lane\u2019s going to be a fun place, and pit road may need extra security.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

NASCAR driver Jamie McMurray is followed by Kurt Busch as theymanuever their cup cars through the new Roval road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 18, 2017 in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo by Bob Leverone\/Getty Images for NASCAR)<\/p><\/div>\n

In Turns 7 and 8, where the course returns to the oval before the entry to what is Turn 1 on the NASCAR oval, CMS removed the lower loop area to make that section of the course faster. Truex hadn\u2019t tested the new configuration when he took questions from reporters, but he had enough of a taste in October to evaluate the experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re set up to turn right and left, yet we\u2019re hitting the banking and trying to go 175 or 180 (mph),\u201d Truex told the NASCAR Wire Service. \u201cIt\u2019s quite a handful there, and then you get to the infield. You\u2019re setup is so compromised to try to run around the big track and then try to run through those sections of the race track where there really is no banking and there\u2019s not a lot of grip.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s really hard to set the car up properly for both. You kind of have to do a lot of give and take. And then the track itself and the infield, there\u2019s a lot of bumps and swells and the way the camber comes out of the turns in certain areas, it\u2019s really, really difficult for a stock car to be setup right and drive somewhat decent. It\u2019s almost like we\u2019re out there just slip-sliding around. It\u2019s kind of like a big drift track\u2014it\u2019s pretty wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Steve O\u2019Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, the watchword for the Playoff road course race is \u201cexcitement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things our fans have always asked for is a road course in the Playoffs,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said. \u201cI applaud Marcus for listening to that. … I couldn\u2019t be more excited about the possibilities that we\u2019re going to see here during the Playoffs, but also about the industry coming together, working together on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The changes to the Charlotte road course were the most significant news of the afternoon, but SMI also unveiled significant upgrades to hospitality areas and fan experiences at three other intermediate tracks\u2014Las Vegas, Atlanta and Texas.<\/p>\n

Fans at all three tracks will see significant refits and upgrades of their lounges. Las Vegas will add a sports bar as one of its new amenities, while Atlanta and Texas will feature new clubs above their respective restart zones, where some of the best racing action commences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CONCORD, N.C. \u2013 Get ready for a road-course Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race on a layout unlike any other. That, at least, was the way reigning series champion Martin Truex Jr. put it. When he tested on the Charlotte road course in October, Truex described the road course\/oval […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[233,16],"class_list":["post-14432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-charlotte-motor-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Charlotte-RoadCourse-MENCS-KuBusch2-101817.jpg?fit=3000%2C1680","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-3KM","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14432"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14436,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14432\/revisions\/14436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}