TALLADEGA, Ala. — With some uncertainty surrounding Texas Motor Speedway’s future, the removal of its scoring pylon last week didn’t draw much attention.
But when teams, drivers and fans arrived at Talladega Superspeedway only to find that its pylon was also gone, everyone was quick to take notice and offer their thoughts.
Some drivers were looking for the pylons the last two weeks, only to find that they were no longer there.
“It was funny, I did find myself trying to look for the pylon last weekend [at Texas], totally forgetting that it wasn’t there.” Bubba Wallace said.
“It was actually funny during qualifying for Xfinity, I got here, and I was looking for the pylon and didn’t realize that they took it down,” Ryan Preece said. “I just didn’t really think much of it until I realized on Twitter that it was taken down.”
Other drivers were quick to point out how useful scoring pylons are as a guide while they’re behind the wheel.
“I know Texas last year, I looked up at the pylon to see where we’re at and things like that, so it’s just cool,” Carson Hocevar said. “You don’t realize how cool it is until it’s gone, right? You’re like, dang, we’d always look at it all the time, if you’re in the campground or in the Cup garage or somewhere where you can’t see the TV monitor. We could have just looked for how the Xfinity qualifying was going, and instead we kept having to look at our phone and try to get service and stuff …
“It just seemed odd to me.”
“I use that a lot, and I didn’t realize how much I used it until it was gone last week at Texas,” Christopher Bell said. “That is the only way that we know how many laps we’re on unless we ask our spotter, and I use [the pylon] a lot. I guess I can just key up and ask my spotter what lap we’re on, but it was super convenient to just look at the pylon and know where we’re at.
“I don’t really care about the running order, but it would be nice to have a lap count or lap ticker somewhere visual from the drivers.”
“It drove me nuts [at Texas] because in the race, you count laps, right?” Justin Allgaier said. “… and it’s a really good indicator of like where the field is at, who you’re racing against, who’s coming and going.”
Martin Truex Jr. partially…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …