Chase Elliott doesn’t seem too thrilled about Iowa Speedway’s restart zone following the track’s controversial repaving.
It’s been a topic of huge discussion this week, and FOX’s Bob Pockrass spoke about the issue with many of the sport’s top drivers, including Elliott.
The No. 9 driver explained that he’s not holding his breath at all when it comes to the restart zone, and believes there will be some confusion on Sunday night. “Exactly,” Elliott said when asked if the repaving will affect lane selection on the restart.
“It’s right in the middle of where you want to be, you know?” So I’m not sure if they — it might be worth thinking about just moving it back, or something, to give the bottom lane a better opportunity. “I don’t know, I mean — obviously, until you do it, it might not be as bad as you think it is, or it might not be as bad as it looks, but I don’t have high hopes for what it looks like, at least.”
Additionally, Elliott made a quip about what he believes to be a half-finished job, believing that someone, somewhere saved some money on the whole ordeal, which has become a detriment to him and his fellow drivers.
“Yeah, I think — you think we could give, you know, a few more car-lengths to the bottom lane? I’m not sure how much (money) we saved, but I hope it went in somebody’s piggy bank, and they do good things with it,” Elliott added.
Alas, it remains to be seen how bad the restart zone is following the repave, but it’s evident Chase Elliott and his peers aren’t too enthusiastic regarding the whole ordeal, and it could lead to some messy moments during Sunday’s race.
Elton Sawyer, NASCAR on how Iowa repave will affect weekend
Additionally, fans and drivers are concerned about the new asphalt ahead of the first NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway.
Only a portion of the route was repaved, which was controversial to say the least.
NASCAR’s return to Iowa Speedway is a win for everyone. It won’t be the biggest crowd in the history of the race. However, we will see a packed race and a lot of excitement, unlike many other tracks on the schedule today. Apparently NASCAR claims they couldn’t repave the entire track because of weather issues.
They couldn’t do it in February and March because of the cold weather. Then after the snow melted, there wasn’t enough time to completely repave the route.
Instead, we have this “Frankenstein”-like patchwork. It’s more than a patchwork, but not a full reasphalting. “The only time we’ve had this at this facility is that obviously Iowa winters are tough,” Elton Sawyer, senior vice president of competition, said via NASCAR.com.
“That’s impacted the surface. When we announced this race last October, our goal from the beginning was not to resurface the track.
As we started planning the event, whether it was tire testing, and looked at the facility, we realized early on in the calendar this year that we had some areas that needed to be resurfaced and resurfaced.”
Iowa Speedway hasn’t been resurfaced since it was built in 2006. Now, something strange is happening.
Either way, NASCAR is hoping to put on a good showing in Iowa, so let’s see if they can do it. On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this article.
