Texas World Speedway sits silently during testing ban

With the news that NASCAR has banned testing at its sanctioned tracks for its three national series in 2009, a few people wondered if that might mean increased curiosity in Texas World Speedway, which last hosted a Cup event in 1981.

But if Sprint Cup teams have shown increased interest in testing at the 2-mile oval that is a carbon copy of Michigan International Speedway, they haven't made that known to track president Bill Mather, who hadn't even considered the idea of NASCAR teams visiting College Station until he read a recent magazine article about the testing ban.

Benny Parsons won the final Cup race at Texas World Speedway in 1981.

Texas World Speedway

Race Winners

Year	Winner	Make
1969	Bobby Isaac	Dodge
1971	Richard Petty	Plymouth
1972	Richard Petty	Plymouth
	Buddy Baker	Dodge
1973	Richard Petty	Dodge
1979	Darrell Waltrip	Chevrolet
1980	Cale Yarborough	Chevrolet
1981	Benny Parsons	Ford

"I have been focusing on the testing business but the Autoweek story was the first time I ever thought about NASCAR," Mather said. "NASCAR's a different world to me.

"I've never met anybody affiliated with NASCAR. I'd like to. But I've been focused in on the road racing world. None of [the Sprint Cup teams] have set foot on the track, I can tell you that much."

Built in 1969 and repaved in 1993, Texas World Speedway mainly hosts regional sports-car events, testing for Star Mazda and American Le Mans Series teams and driver education courses. However, a portion of the superspeedway -- particularly 22-degree banked Turns 3 and 4 -- were unsuitable for high-speed testing because of bumpiness. But Mather said a recent 35-foot wide, 2,200-foot long grinding of the track surface in those areas has hopefully corrected those flaws.

"Our oval will be hopefully test ready [by the first of the year]," Mather said. "We've just finished grinding [Turns] 3 and 4, which allows us to run our Grand Prix course, also. Turns 1 and 2 are in pretty good shape. The problem is that our Grand Prix course runs Turns 3 and 4.

"When the grinding company came in, they said to us, 'This is really good asphalt. It's amazing how good this asphalt is for its age.' And that made me happy, because I can't justify the cost of repaving it."

Mather said some spot grinding was also done to Turns 1 and 2. This week, a process known as asphalt rejuvenation will be applied to the banking, a section of the road course and the paddock area.

"You know how if you take a pair of old leather boots and put leather balm on them, it refreshes the leather? This stuff reportedly does the same thing for asphalt," Mather said. "It has a slightly leveling effect -- it softens the asphalt so you can actually roll it and repack it instead of having to do a slurry fix or patching or completely new overlay. (Continued)