Chase Elliott doesn’t seem too enthusiastic about the restart zone at Iowa Speedway following the controversial repave of the track.
It’s been the subject of great debate this week, and FOX’s Bob Pockrass talked with many of the top drivers in the sport about it, including Elliott. The No. 9 wheelman explained that he’s not exactly holding his breath when it comes to the restart zone, believing it’ll be a mess on Sunday evening.
“Absolutely,” Elliott said, regarding whether the repave will impact what lane he chooses on the restart. “It’s right, dead 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
Moreover, heading into the first NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway ever, fans and drivers are concerned with the new repave. Only a portion of the track received new pavement and it has been controversial, to say the least.
NASCAR going back to Iowa Speedway is a win for everyone. This is not going to be the largest crowd that has ever been to a race. However, you will have a sellout and enthusiasm unlike many tracks on the schedule today.
Evidently, NASCAR is claiming that there were weather issues that wouldn’t allow them to repave the entire track. They couldn’t do it back in February and March because of the cold weather. Then there wasn’t enough time once it thawed to do an entire repave.
Instead, there is this “Frankenstein” looking patchwork. It’s more than patchwork but short of a full repave.
“The one thing that over time with this facility — obviously the winters are hard in Iowa,” Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer said, via NASCAR.com. “It took a toll on the surface. Our goal all along, as we announced this race back in October of last year, was to not repave.
“As we started scheduling events, whether it be a tire test and looking at the facility, once we got into the early part of the calendar this year, it was apparent there were some areas we were going to have to take a look at and do some repaving.”
Since being built in 2006, Iowa Speedway had not been repaved. Now it has this strange thing going on. Regardless, NASCAR still hopes to put on a good show at Iowa. We’ll see if they’re able to get the job done.
On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this article.
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