to add to the mix..
Repaved Kansas ‘like a whole new race track’
http://www.nascar.com/news/121017/kansas-tire-testing/index.html
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — It was the same purple, yellow and green grandstand; the same outlet mall and casino beyond the same 1.5-mile oval; the same strong wind whipping in from the same prairie. It was Kansas Speedway, all right — the same name painted along the inside wall and on a sign rotating at the top of the scoring tower. But from a driver’s perspective, everything about the track seemed different.
Cars on NASCAR’s Sprint Cup circuit circled the facility Wednesday in a test that marked the first time a full field had taken to the track since a resurfacing that was completed in late summer. Although rain cut the scheduled four-hour session in half, competitors still got a healthy dose of a venue that’s been repaved and had variable banking added in the turns since the last time the sport’s premier series raced here in April.
“This track went from being abrasive and wearing the tires out, to smooth and super-fast, and the times just don’t fall off,” Jeff Gordon said. “If anything, they get faster. It’s basically like going to a whole new race track.”
Gitter done
It seems strange to read about this track. Never went back to see it but used to drive a wagon pulled by a team of mules over the south 40 of the track while my dad walked and picked corn by hand and threw it in the wagon in the fall some 60 years ago.