FORT WORTH, Texas (March 4, 2008) – Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage has given NASCAR an open invitation for further testing in preparation for the TMS debut of the new Sprint Cup Series car at the upcoming Samsung 500.
The new Sprint Cup Series car, formerly known as the “Car of Tomorrow,” is making its first appearance at 1.5-mile ovals this season, and Gossage would like to provide additional testing time after watching the car’s debut at Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s 1.5-mile oval this past weekend. There was an abundance of on-track incidents during practice and qualifying, a track-record 11 cautions on race day and some driver concerns regarding their April 4-6 visit to Texas Motor Speedway for the Samsung 500 race week.
“NASCAR made the move to the new car to further improve two key elements of the sport – driver safety and competition – and they have done an outstanding job,” Gossage said. “Whenever there is change, there is always a transition period with some issues or obstacles. I am a huge supporter of this car and have already found the car to be more exciting and competitive than the old car.”
For the time being, however, Gossage is encouraging NASCAR to give the competitors an additional opportunity to test at Texas Motor Speedway prior to the Samsung 500 because the only testing on the 1.5-mile, high-banked oval came in the form of a two-day Goodyear tire test Jan. 1516 with Juan Pablo Montoya and Clint Bowyer. Gossage is open to a test session in the coming weeks, opening the speedway Wednesday (April 2) of race week for a practice session or expanding the race week schedule Thursday (April 3) to add a Cup practice to the Nationwide Series’ practice and qualifying for the O’Reilly 300.
“My concern is that they did have an open test at Las Vegas and still had a record number of cautions, including three serious crashes involving former Cup champions,” Gossage said. “We only have had a two-car Goodyear test so we could see a lot of crashes, and that causes me concern. I’m sure the teams would like as much data and track time as possible to reach that comfort level with the car and its performance at our speedway.” Gossage’s concern was heightened by comments this past weekend at Las Vegas by fourtime series champion Jeff Gordon and defending Samsung 500 champion Jeff Burton regarding the challenges they face at Texas.
“I think Texas will be the toughest track we go to with this car, [and] it’s already a tough race track,” Gordon said. “And when you look at the transitions, the vertical loads, the bumps and the speeds, it’s probably going to be closer to this track [Vegas] than to any other track we go to. And we’ll try to go with all that we know. We’ll try to engineer and do the science and the math and everything, and try to figure out how much travel we’re going to get and the loads that we’re going to get based on past experience and being there. The biggest challenge we’re going to have with the Impala going forward this year is going to tracks that we haven’t tested at and been to and gotten the data and the laps with the telemetry.”
“I think there are a lot of challenges at Texas. Maybe more so than here [Vegas]; Texas is a little rougher,” Burton added. “With this car, the bumps seem to be a pretty major issue so I think Texas is going to be quite a challenge with this car. Some teams are going to hit and some teams aren’t. The success we were able to do there last year; none of that works. None of that information will be worth a hoot, so it’s starting all over again.”
Track time, whether in an additional test session or during Samsung 500 practices, will be critical to finding success at Texas Motor Speedway.
“Data is data. If you’ve got any at all, it’s a good thing,” Gordon said. “Would we have been better off going someplace else [for an open test]? Maybe Texas or something. Yeah, maybe.”
“It makes it [practice] exceptionally important,” said Burton, the only two-time Cup winner at Texas Motor Speedway. “The key to our sport is taking the time that you have to do anything that you are doing, and doing it efficiently. If you have an hour practice, you have to use that hour of practice better than your competition. And the teams that can do that are the teams that continually have success. Being efficient with your time is really important. That’s going to be like 2that all year with this car. Well, it’s like that with every car, but I think it’s going to be even more important because we’re trying to learn so much in a short time.”
The Samsung 500 race week, which also includes the O’Reilly 300 Nationwide Series race Saturday, April 5, kicks off for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams Friday, April 4 with opening practice and The Dallas Morning News Qualifying Day.
Tickets remain available for The Dallas Morning News Qualifying Days, O’Reilly 300 Nationwide Series race and Samsung 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event. For more information, contact the ticket office at (817) 215-8500 or visit www.texasmotorspeedway.com.
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