Drivers prepare to be tested by repaved, reconfigured Texas Motor Speedway

The video itself is rather inconspicuous. NASCAR driver Chris Buescher is behind the wheel of a Chevrolet pace car and taking a few laps around Texas Motor Speedway.

But that video offers a key insight into what drivers face heading into Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500. Buescher’s laps last month represent the only footage drivers have to gauge the extensive changes recently completed on the Dallas-Fort Worth track.

The overhaul includes the entire 1.5-mile racing surface undergoing a complete repave, a reduction of the banking in Turns 1 and 2 from 24 degrees to 20, and widening the track in that section from 60 feet to 80. A new drainage system was also installed and is expected to curb the repeated delays Texas races have faced -- including two Cup Series races and an IndyCar race a year ago.

Because the modifications were instituted over the offseason, there was a tight timeframe during which drivers haven’t been able to take a competitive lap and get a firsthand feel before TMS’s annual spring Monster Energy Cup Series race weekend begins on Friday.

“There’s really no homework to do,” said Kyle Busch, the defending Texas spring race winner. “You can’t even watch last year’s races, you can’t look at anything besides the Buescher YouTube video and just see what the place looks like so you don’t go in there blind. That’s about it.”

Drivers aren’t alone in having a blank slate going into the seventh race of the season. Goodyear, the Cup Series tire supplier, wasn’t able to conduct a tire test between the changes being completed last month and this weekend. Therefore it will bring a tire compound used at Kentucky Speedway in July. And with the new track radically different than its previous incarnation, crew chiefs possess a limited amount of applicable data from previous Texas races.

Kevin Harvick’s crew chief, Rodney Childers, tweeted a photo of himself this week watching the 2016 Kentucky race. Conventional wisdom suggests Texas’ new layout will be similar to what drivers and teams faced at Kentucky, which had undergone a complete resurfacing prior to its race weekend and is also a 1.5-mile track.

NASCAR added an hour of practice to Friday’s single practice session to help drivers acclimate.

“I don’t really know what Texas brings for us yet,” said Joey Logano, who won the 2014 Texas spring race. “Obviously, we can look at recent repaves and get an idea of what it’s going to be like.”

TMS officials are hopeful the changes enacted will improve competition. Drivers now have a multitude of options on how to best circumnavigate the quad-oval, and the two diverse sets of turns presents a challenge related to chassis setups. Entry speeds into Turn 1 will also lower considerably.

“We think this will make the races a lot more exciting with a lot more lead changes and [passing] throughout the field,” TMS president Eddie Gossage said. “Drivers that may get theirs cars to work great in Turns 1 and 2 are going to struggle in Turns 3 and 4 and vice versa.”

Not everyone is optimistic, however. By nature drivers resist repaves and favor abrasive, weathered surfaces featuring significant tire wear and cars sliding into the corners.

Atlanta Motor Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, and the previous version of Texas, last repaved in 2001, are the three intermediate-sized tracks that regularly elicit favorable reviews. Races on repaved tracks have generally received far less generous praise.

“To me those are the absolute worst racetracks we can ever go to. I hate repaves,” Busch said. “But it’s a part of our schedule, it’s a part of our sport.

“Five years from now, six years from now, it’s going to be great. I’m looking forward to that aspect of it. Right out of the gate, going there, trying to put rubber down, it’s slick, man. It’s so treacherous, hard to get ahold of, hard to understand what you’re feeling with your car, ‘cause you can think your tight, you got all the grip in the world, you’re going around the corner, then boom, it just busts loose right out from under you with no warning. That’s the worst thing.”