The speed of the car or the strategy of the team is not the only thing that gets a driver that coveted cruise down the victory lane. A lot goes into a 500-mile-long race at an intermediate NASCAR oval, track conditions being a major one of them. Although NASCAR decided to cut the race at Texas Motor Speedway from 500 to 400 miles due to the scorching heat, the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 received its fair share of criticisms from NASCAR insiders, as well as drivers.

Denny Hamlin is certainly one of those drivers who felt like there were so many things wrong with the track in Fort Worth, Texas. For one, the width around the first two turns is redundant and two, the PJ-1 [custom formulated synthetic resin] is too slick for the tires to hold on to the track while running. On that note, two renowned NASCAR experts spilled their opinions regarding what the track officials could do to improve the racing at Texas Motor Speedway that deteriorated due to the 2017 refurbishment done by SMI.

Jeff Gluck lodged an 8-worded impression on how the track is being managed today

When the fans arrived with their cars in the parking lot, they saw that the parking lot had spots that were just withering and crumbling away. Naturally, they wondered why they paid the parking fee. The Fort Worth area is one of the posh areas as far as the media market is concerned. Such poor maintenance of a NASCAR intermediate oval is indeed unfortunate.

The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck said, “I noticed, there’s a huge new apartment complex going up right across the track. So now this land is increasingly valuable. The opportunity is here to really make this a special place. It’s a great market.”

However, the track is not good for racing. So what is the solution? Gluck felt like the track officials had to put a good amount of money into the track to rebuild and refurbish it. Nevertheless, he gave a cheaper alternative to it.

“I think that the best bet and probably the cheapest thing to do; try to figure out something in Turns 1 and 2, take advantage of what the next-gen does right now,” he said, “Don’t build another short track because as much as I love short tracks, I don’t have a lot of confidence that racing is gonna get better. And hope that you have another great place.”

“Just feels like not a lot of upkeep,” he added.

His friend Jordan Bianchi agreed. He was curious about where all the money that the track was generating from hosting NASCAR races was going. He admitted that the fans were frustrated at the back-dated elements in the 1500-acre facility. Bianchi said, “When you look at other venues in the Dallas Fort Worth area, you’ve got the Cowboy stadium. You’ve got where the Maverick’s and Stars play. You have to keep up.”

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Meanwhile, during a post-race interview, Richard Childress Racing driver, Kyle Busch, commented on how he was different from his fans.

Despite all the mismanagement and a 100° sun, the fans did what they do best

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With the temperature rising up to over 80 degrees, it was extremely difficult for drivers to drive in their firesuits. Hence, many teams got cold vests for their drivers so they wouldn’t feel hot. However, the fans did not have any such gear.

They visited the lusterless track and that too, in that kind of heat, just because they love the sport. For them, NASCAR is not just a sport, it’s an emotion. On that note, Kyle Busch admitted how the fans of the sport were superior to him.

He admitted, “I give NASCAR fans all the credit in the world because they are a damn strong bunch. They are passionate, they are loving to our sport as much as we want them to be but to sit out on 100 degree heat on aluminium grandstands, I’m not paying to do that. I’m getting paid to do that.”

Speaking of the expected renovation of the asphalt-shrouded track, Busch stated, “All of us drivers would highly not want it to be reconfigured again into an Atlanta, so that wouldn’t be fun.”

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