Kentucky Speedway's track is 'rough yet rewarding'

Kentucky Speedway is proudly promoting its 2014 Sprint Cup Series race as "The Roughest Track In NASCAR," including commercials that use those very words.

Most Cup drivers have come to like the bumpy, 1.5-mile tri-oval. The rougher the track, the less grip it has and the more driver skill comes into play. It also takes just the right setup to maneuver over and around the track's bumps without sacrificing speed.

"It puts the car certainly more in the driver's hands," said Brad Keselowski, the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. "With the mechanical grip you can move around and try different things on the track and the cars respond, and I think that produces better racing."

Keselowski, who won the 2012 Quaker State 400 at Kentucky, will be among the top contenders again for this year's race June 28. Keselowski and fellow Sprint Cup drivers Brian Vickers and Jamie McMurray did a Goodyear tire test at Kentucky last month.

"It's the roughest track I've ever been on," Vickers said.

Goodyear has developed a tire that holds up on what can be a tire-eating surface, Vickers said.

"For a track this old and a surface this rough you would expect a lot more fall-off," Vickers said. "You have some but not a lot."

More options mean better racing, drivers say

The track also has avoided falling into the cookie cutter, single-groove racing that can become tedious on intermediate 1.5-mile tracks.

"With track position you can move around from top to bottom, bottom to top, move up a few lanes and around more," Vickers said.

McMurray, who finished second in the 2013 Quaker State 400 at Kentucky, said the combination of solid tire construction and the rough surface should produce optimum race conditions.

"I think the surface itself makes it better than other places," McMurray said. "In this race last year I re-started eighth with about 20 or 25 laps to go and could have won in about two more laps with Matt Kenseth, who had stayed out at that point. That's ultimately what you want, a track that you have a little bit of strategy with the guys that stay out and take that risk.

"Some guys can hang on and some of them can't. It's fun when guys pull out, they're 10 cars back and they have (new) tires on that are quicker. That's when you see good passing."

Vickers hit the Turn 3 wall at Kentucky during the recent tire testing, but he emerged unscathed.

"Most of (the bumpiness) is on the straightaway," Vickers said. "It's certainly rough in the corners as well. Maybe if you could just pave the straightaway and leave the turns, it would be all right."

Vickers smiled as he said it. The Kentucky surface occasionally has been patched but not repaved since 2002.

Kentucky Speedway general manager Mark Simendinger said there are no plans to change the surface. Offseason maintenance included placing asphalt patches near the apron in Turn 1 and in the top and bottom lanes near the entrance to turn 4.

"I get a lot of questions about, hey, are you going to repave the racetrack?" Simendinger said. "The answer to that is we're not planning to repave the racetrack. All the drivers universally have come to me and they've said please, please keep the track the way it is."

The Speedway occasionally has been criticized for its uneven surface, but the bumps now are considered part of the track's character. Former Cup driver Ricky Craven said NASCAR drivers generally accept it.

"They don't want single-groove racing, and I don't think you (fans) do either," Craven, now an ESPN analyst, said recently. "I think it's a good decision."

This is a far cry from the fledgling Kentucky Speedway of the early 2000s, when drivers most notably from the IndyCar circuit complained about the wicked bumps. Indy cars, which no longer race at Kentucky, are lighter and sit lower to the ground. Thus, drivers felt the bumps more.

The carping continued when NASCAR Sprint Cup arrived on the Kentucky scene in 2011, but the drivers since have taken a figurative 180-degree turn.

Having seen other tracks since repaved and become slicker, drivers have come to appreciate Kentucky for its handling and raciness. There are more chances to pass and less of the numbing, follow-the-leader racing where many cars are going the same speed.

The bumps started showing up when the track, which had its debut season in 2000, began settling into the Kentucky hillside in Sparta. With ground water occasionally seeping up onto the track, plus the annual freeze-thaw cycles of local weather, the asphalt surface tends to stay uneven.

Some of biggest adjustments before driver takes the wheel

For race teams, that means the proper setup is crucial. The Sprint Cup series has a new ride-height rule that provides teams more flexibility to create setups that help cars handle the bumps.

Jason Ratcliff, crew chief for Sprint Cup star Matt Kenseth, said it is mostly about finding the right shocks and springs packages at Kentucky.

"If you have a 500-pound spring it's going to compress through the bumps a lot more than if you have a 2,000-pound spring," Ratcliff said. "You're trying to find that combination of spring rate and a shock to complement that. On a rough track you'll be softer on your springs.

"I'd say guys would be anywhere from 500 to 1,200 pounds (springs) at Kentucky. A smooth track, you may run up in the 3,500 to 6,000-pound range."

As for ride heights, Ratcliff said those can be adjusted in the range of three to four inches.

"The No. 1 thing on the setup is how do I get through the bumps," Ratcliff said. "The ride heights are going to be a little higher than normal to go through the bumps. The shocks are going to be a huge part of that.

"You take them apart, change the thickness and diameter of the shims. You will definitely see, throughout practice, guys throwing a lot of shock combinations at it. You improve the ride through the bumps, and that way you also improve the grip."

In race-speak, the new 2014 Sprint Cup car package includes a square leading edge on the splitter, side skirt and rear fascia adjustments and an eight-inch rear spoiler.

As for the tires, Ratcliff said, the left-side range is 15 to 20 psi and the right side tires are generally 40 to 45 psi.

"The tire is like a spring," Ratcliff said. "The more air in it, it's stiffer. You may drop down to softer tires at Kentucky to keep the contact better. It's all about trying to get the tire to stay against the race track."

Drivers say the whole package makes things more enjoyable than ever at Kentucky.

"The car has evolved and advanced, and the ride height is kind of that next evolution," Keselowski said. "Right now the cars are as smooth if not smoother than I can ever remember them being at the bumpy tracks.

"Kentucky is a unique track. It's got unique transitions to it, unique bumps. There really is no other track like Kentucky, and I think that's a good thing." ⬛