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CUP: ‘New’ Kansas Track Hosts Chase
Kansas Speedway repaving throws curve for Hollywood Casino 400…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted October 15, 2012   Charlotte, NC
A bulldozer digs up pit road as track works begin tearing up the track for a repaving project immediately following the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series STP 400 at Kansas Speedway on April 22, 2012. (Photo: Getty Images)
A newly tightened championship race. Fuel-mileage racing. A freshly repaved speedway.

What could go wrong?

Maybe nothing, but the stars are aligning for an unusual week at Kansas Speedway, which is scheduled Sunday to host the sixth race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the Hollywood Casino 400.

The Kansas Speedway the Sprint Cup tour visited in late April – Denny Hamlin outran Martin Truex Jr. for the win – now is radically different. Only the name is the same. The racing surface has been repaved and reconfigured since that 400-mile run, making Sunday’s race a new ballgame.

Although some drivers moaned and groaned – typical behavior when a track repaving is proposed, International Speedway Corp. officials proceeded with plans to resurface the speedway because of seams separating and chunks of the asphalt popping up.

But this resurfacing is about much more than new asphalt. While track operators had the big equipment on site, they decided to change the track banking from 15 degrees to a progressive style of banking that runs from 17 degrees on the inside to 20 degrees at the outside wall.

That change is expected to create more opportunities for side-by-side racing and, not incidentally, faster speeds.

Matt Kenseth’s track qualifying record of 180.856 miles per hour, set in 2005, is likely to fall in time trials Friday afternoon.

Because of the resurfacing, teams will spend two extra days at the track this week.

Four hours of test time are scheduled Wednesday afternoon and four more hours Thursday morning to allow teams to acclimate themselves to the new surface. The tests also will help “rubber in” the new surface and hopefully create more than one racing groove for Sunday’s 400. Track officials also have been using a tire-dragging machine to put additional rubber on the surface.

“Nobody really knows what to expect there,” said Clint Bowyer, Saturday night’s winner at Charlotte. “It's a repave. You know these cars that are running on these mile‑and‑a‑halfs are going to be fast there, but you don't know if somebody is going to stub their toe, if somebody is going to struggle if it comes down to fuel mileage.”

A 90-minute practice session is scheduled at Kansas Friday afternoon. Qualifying for Sunday’s race is scheduled at 5:10 p.m. Friday.

Two practice sessions are scheduled Saturday (along with the Kansas Lottery 300 Nationwide Series race), and the Hollywood Casino 400 is scheduled at 2 p.m. (ET) Sunday.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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