What Happened?
A lengthy winless streak was snapped as Chase Elliott survived a multitude of overtime finishes to win Sunday afternoon (April 14) at Texas Motor Speedway.
Behind Elliott, teammate William Byron made contact with Ross Chastain on the backstretch, spinning the No. 1. Brad Keselowski slipped through to second, Byron finished third, and Chastain wound up 32nd after his last-lap crash.
What Really Happened?
The nickname “No Limits, Texas” paints an ironic description of the current state of the Texas racing surface. Moments after a driver finds the limit of the track, things usually end up going sideways.
The word “sketchy” might as well have been a free space on this weekend’s NASCAR bingo card, because every driver used it to describe the racing at Texas. This time, the dusty high groove had a partner-in-sketchiness.
The bumps on the north end of the speedway claimed more victims this weekend than the notoriously difficult turns 1 and 2. While drivers still struggled for grip when they got too high on the wide end of the racetrack, they generally kept the cars out of the wall and the race stayed green.
To contrast, multiple drivers had their cars suddenly snap through the bumps in the high-speed turns 3 and 4.
These bumps claimed NASCAR veterans like Jimmie Johnson, Christopher Bell, Michael McDowell, and most notably, Denny Hamlin.
The difficulty of the outer lanes on both ends of the race track begs the question: Should Texas be repaved again?
In the seven years since its reconfiguration, the groove has widened at a snail’s pace. Though the racetrack looks super wide, the usable lanes still make it fairly narrow. With this Next Gen car, the racing feels like it becomes too sloppy, especially at the end.
The 2022 event set the caution record at 16. Last year saw 11 cautions in the first 400-miler, and we matched the record with Chastain’s caution on the final lap. After the lackluster racing and the crashfests of the past seven years, Texas definitely has a case for another do-over.
At the same time, NASCAR typically puts on its best shows when conditions challenge the cars and drivers, and Texas checks that box.
The pavement life cycle at Texas is also improving, especially since NASCAR…
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