NASCAR insider addresses future of Texas Motor Speedway: 'Past the point of no return '

Sunday’s Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway was a controversial one. Fans, drivers and media members alike weren’t in love with the action, but Joey Logano wouldn’t change anything, as he was victorious coming to the start-finish-line at the end of the race.

While the venue has some options to try and deliver some better racing in the future, NASCAR insiders Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi aren’t betting on them coming to fruition. They believe that Texas is simply going to remain the same moving into the future, and it’s up to the drivers to adjust when it’s time to head to the Lone Star State.

“It’s a very treacherous track. … When I talked to Mark Faber, who’s the Executive Vice President of [Texas Motor Speedway], he said that he likes it when the drivers say it’s a treacherous track. He likes that it sounds so difficult for them. Obviously, the drivers don’t like that. They want a track they feel like they can race on and have multiple grooves and all stuff. I mean, both [Ryan] Blaney and [Kyle] Larson after the race were pretty down on the track. But this is what Texas is. I don’t think that we’re going to see some dramatic repave or reconfiguration right now,” Gluck stated, via The Teardown.

“I mean, even Larson after the race was like, I mean, let’s say they repave this place right now, it’s going to take four or five years for it to start aging up enough where you can race on it. He’s like, the quickest thing to do would be to make it another Atlanta, but we already have so many speedway races, so everybody will be down on that. So what do you do with this place? [William] Byron pointed out, it’s like the asphalt that they used here is not aging like at other racetracks. The color has changed, but it’s not actually wearing out.

“This was repaved in 2017, and it sits and bakes in the Texas heat. It just hasn’t done anything. So, it’s an important market for NASCAR. The attendance was up, you know, like double digits, so I think that this is going to be a place that just stays how it is, and it’ll be the annual sort of complain about Texas thing in the spring, but it’s just not gonna change.”

Meanwhile, Bianchi is of the opinion that Texas is simply beyond the point of no return when it comes to a potential change. Still, he thinks the tracks rewards the best drivers and the best teams, and that’s really all you can ask for out of a venue for the Cup Series.

“This is interesting. I think you bring up the big issue, the big storyline for this weekend is, I feel like Texas Motor Speedway is kind of past the point of no return,” Bianchi added. “You can’t reconfigure it to a traditional 1.5 mile track, because it’s expensive, and it’s going to take a few years to get to where you want it to be. I will say, this doesn’t race like Kansas or Charlotte or even Las Vegas, but at least Texas has an identity now.

“At least it isn’t like it used to be. It’s like, ‘Oh my god, we’re going to Texas, the racing is — this is horrible, the worst.’ I know you do your preseason rankings of worst races, and I don’t think Texas deserves that low of a ranking anymore, because it’s unpredictable. It’s entertaining in a way. At least it has its own identity now. The identity isn’t like before, where it’s like, pure suckitude. This is actually entertaining. Like, anything can happen.

“I will say, it still rewards the best drivers and the best teams. It’s not like, you know, you had a Larson up there, [Joey] Logano, Blaney — you had the guys up there today who you usually see up there, and it even rewards a Michael McDowell, who is really good. That’s not a bad thing. It’s not like all of this carnage and unpredictability is leading to, like, wild finishes and unpredictable winners. It’s still leading to justified guys who are going out there doing it.

“Now, that said, you still would like to see better racing. That’s where you have to draw the line. You want to figure out a way to do better racing. I just don’t know if it’s possible there, in this configuration. The track is the track at this point, it’s not going to change.”

Perhaps NASCAR will look to adjust Texas Motor Speedway moving forward. There’s certainly a ton of potential at the track with the large market in the state, but options seem limited. Fans, drivers and media members alike may simply have to accept the venue for what it is, it seems.