NASCAR at Texas preview: Tricky track presents assorted challenges

Texas Motor Speedway was recently repaved and the new surface has increased speeds while decreasing grip.

Things were looking promising for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who was eighth on the speed chart during practice Saturday morning at Texas Motor Speedway in preparation for Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 (2 p.m. ET, FS1). Then suddenly his No. 17 Ford broke loose exiting Turn 4, sliding up the track and pancaking the outside wall.

There was no mechanical failure on Stenhouse’s car. Nor was there an issue with a tire. Nor did the veteran Roush Fenway Racing driver make a rookie mistake. Instead this was a type of accident that frequently occurs at Texas, where high speeds combined with a track devoid of optimal grip leave drivers with a miniscule margin of error.

Texas has always been among the more challenging ovals on the Cup Series schedule. But a repave and reconfiguration completed prior to its annual spring race last year only heightened the difficulty in getting around the 1.5-mile track. Speeds increased even more -- Kurt Busch’s pole-winning lap for Sunday’s race clocked in at 197.368 mph -- while the middle and top lanes were essentially made un-drivable due to the severe lack of grip.

Previously, a large part of a driver having success at Texas meant searching for the best line -- be it the bottom against the apron, the middle or up against the wall -- over the course of 500 miles. Now the bottom is almost the sole option, lending to large stretches of single-file racing as passing can be problematic.

Passing opportunities often happen when a driver loses traction going through a corner -- like Stenhouse’s accident on Saturday -- or via strategy where the lack of tire wear allows crew chiefs the choice of not having to call for a four-tire pit stop, thus gaining their driver track position.

As they did for both its races last season, TMS officials leading into this weekend attempted to widen the racing surface by continually having a tractor drag four Goodyear tires across the high part of the track. The idea is by laying rubber down it will provide additional grip and allow drivers to race side-by-side.

Not everyone, however, is convinced the efforts will actually have significant impact. Kevin Harvick, who’s won twice on 1.5-mile tracks this season and won at Texas last fall, said the bottom groove remains preferable and won’t run higher until debris accumulation diminishes the effectiveness of the lower lane.

“The bottom groove is going to be the fastest,” Harvick said. “...They are doing everything they can, but in the end you just have so much grip in the whole race track that the bottom is going to be the dominant groove until there is less grip.”

Not by choice, Ryan Blaney found himself running the high groove during practice on Friday. What he found was that while the surface had improved compared to a year ago, it still could be unforgiving and a driver can expect either to backslide or wreck if they get far off the bottom.

“Last year, you had to be right on the white line and now you can get up probably a car width,” Blaney said. “We’re getting there. It takes time; it’s hard to rush these things. They’ve done the best they can to rush it. I think it’s progressing nicely, better than some of the repaves that we’ve seen.”

As if the adverse conditions didn’t present a big enough challenge, Mother Nature presented another hurdle Saturday. Unseasonably cold weather that had the ambient temperature around 40 degrees with 30 mph gusts of wind and no sun meant teams gleaned little from the two practice sessions, as Sunday’s forecast calls for the sun to be out and the temperature to hit a high of 68 degrees.

Because the track was so different than what they’ll face on race day, many teams approached Saturday as a glorified test to help them down the road or worked on little things. Busch said his Stewart-Haas Racing team focused on ensuring his Ford engine was properly tuned.

“It is one of those days you want to call in sick,” Busch said. “There isn’t much you can gain … you have to go off past race notes.”