The newly repaved Iowa Speedway was tricky for drivers to navigate. They were unsure how the track would behave, after the practice session on June 14 saw them struggle with tire issues. Despite the concerns raised by the likes of Christopher Bell ahead of the race, the track proved decent enough. However, Kyle Petty was pretty frustrated at drivers’ inability to predict the nuances of their performance at the freshly repaved Iowa Speedway.

The 2024 NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series have seen numerous repaved tracks, significantly impacting performance and strategy. With the Next Gen car struggling on short tracks and road courses, Petty believes fresh repavement allows drivers to take bold risks, leading to more thrilling races.

“Their own worst enemies,” Kyle Petty questions the judgment of drivers

Despite the NASCAR Cup Series making its way to Iowa Speedway for the first time, 29 out of 36 drivers had already driven on the track in another series. Every driver had a 50-minute practice session at Iowa Speedway to familiarize themselves with the partial repaving at the turns. Additionally, Goodyear organized a tire test on May 28th, with Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, and Christopher Bell collecting plenty of data for both NASCAR and Goodyear.

However, despite all this, drivers remained seemingly unprepared for the challenges that lay ahead. This prompted Kyle Petty to express his frustration on PRN’s Fast Talk. He said, “You cannot listen to those guys. They’re their own worst enemies and they don’t even know it. After the tire test at Iowa, we heard how bad it was going to be. How bad the racing was going to be, how bad everything was. And these guys go and test, and say ‘still don’t know what’s going to happen.’ You ‘don’t know what’s going to happen’?”

After five separate tire problems during practice, drivers were concerned. Christopher Bell said, “We were just here, what, a month ago? And we did 50-lap runs, like all day long, and had no issues at all. I never had a tire problem at all. It caught me off guard and it caught my team off guard as well.”

Deny Hamlin was also surprised and noted, “It was interesting to see they had as high of wear as they did in just 20 laps.” However, the race at Iowa went without much trouble. Petty was unhappy with drivers not being certain about the track behavior despite racing on it.

As with any track or road surface, regular maintenance improves the quality of races, reduces tire wear, and improves grip. Urging NASCAR to be aggressive with their track maintenance, Kyle Petty said, “You have to repave these tracks at some point in time. You can’t continue. They paved Daytona in 58, they paved it again in 79 and they paved it a few years ago. Every 20 or 25 years, we’re going to have to come in and pave these places. You beg for your street to be paved, these racetracks have to be paved to continue to move forward and to put on the show.”

Iowa Speedway had been waiting for its moment in the limelight for 18 years. All it needed was a cosmetic facelift. However, with any such procedure, there are risks involved, and in this instance, it wasn’t pretty. The 0.875-mile track had its bottom and middle lanes partially repaved with black asphalt, while the top lane was untouched. Despite how entertaining the race was, it did limit drivers from driving in the topmost lane, to not compromise their speed.

So why was it partially repaved? It was all a matter of timing! Even though Iowa’s progressive banking configuration was loved by NASCAR racers, inspection on the track revealed that some of the lower grooves were damaged beyond repair due to moisture under the surface. This meant, in Kyle Petty’s words, “It had to be paved, not needed to be paved.” but with the process starting late, the complete repavement couldn’t happen on time.

To add, the repavement was not the only change that Petty supported. With Goodyear having been under scrutiny this year, Petty upheld both their and NASCAR’s efforts at the New Hampshire race.

Kyle Petty praises NASCAR for using wet tires

Kyle Petty heaped praises on NASCAR for the way wet weather tires were used in rain-affected New Hampshire during USA Today 301. Race was halted with 82 laps to go due to severe weather conditions, with all indications pointing towards it ending prematurely. However, a landmark decision by NASCAR meant that drivers were able to complete their full allotment of laps at the Magic Mile.

Impressed by how the wet weather tires performed, and the quality of racing after it was resumed, Kyle Petty said, “It’s a wet weather tire. It is not a rain tire people. We didn’t see any windshield wipers on these cars. It’s a wet weather tire, and I want to throw something at you, in wet conditions, the track gets slick. Slick track means throttle, means driver, means good racing. Let’s just put those three together right there.”

Still, the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Bubba Wallace were left perplexed by NASCAR’s decision to halt the race and not bring out the wet-weather tires early.

Racing under damp conditions, drivers began looking for drier parts of the track to get a competitive advantage. This opened up the track, which gave drivers overtaking opportunities towards the end of the race. Speaking about this, Petty said, “That’s because that’s what weather tires do. They allow you to run in other places. They allow the racetrack to open up. I thought what we saw was great driving from all the competitors yesterday. They all adjusted well, some better than others. When it comes to a race like this, it’s an open game. Anybody can win, anytime.”

Do you Petty was right to call out the drivers for not being able to judge the repaved track at Iowa? Let us know in the comments!