Kentucky Speedway GM 'pretty bullish' on track surface

NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. called portions of Kentucky Speedway's track surface "just terrible" after Saturday night's Quaker State 400. David Ragan tweeted that it felt like he'd "had a fight with a concrete jack hammer." And Kevin Harvick's crew chief, Rodney Childers, posted the next morning he "had a dream last night that they repaved @KySpeedway…Please tell me dreams come true!"

The track's general manager has a message for the Sprint Cup Series personalities who declared portions of his track too tough to race after last weekend: Call me.

"Everybody knows how to get ahold of us," Mark Simendinger said. "We'll figure out the best thing to do."

Simendinger said that coming out of the weekend, he remains "pretty bullish" on the track surface, which has been in place since Kentucky Speedway opened in 2000. He also considered the racing "competitive" and "compelling," producing three different winners in three nights.

Fresh out of their race cars, though, some drivers changed their tone from how they walked into Kentucky Speedway last week, often requesting the track not to touch its aging surface.

Drivers mostly focused on a portion of the front stretch that Simendinger said had been patched since the Sprint Cup Series last raced in Sparta, Ky. A portion of asphalt there was visibly darker. Cars shook and sparked upon running over it.

"It sucks, man," Earnhardt Jr. told USA Today about front stretch. "God almighty. It's so brutal. It's just terrible, man. And I hate it for the speedway, because they just got their date (four years ago). But man, it's the most miserable thing out there. Ain't nothing about that I want to do over again. I'm glad it's over.

"…They tried to work on it and I can't fault them for the job they did. Because (shoot), if it were worse than that, I'd have hated to run it."

Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Busch, who won the inaugural Quaker State 400 in 2011, both suggested a partial re-pave to just cover the front stretch. Busch noted he also had trouble with so-called weepers in the corners, or areas in which water below the surface leaks onto the track.

"The problem we have is the maintenance of it — being able to keep it together," Simendinger said. "As far as the challenge it's providing to the drivers, I think it's great. It's really, really hard."

But it wasn't just the surface that contributed to a rough ride. NASCAR rule changes this year mandated higher rear spoilers and removed minimum height requirements, allowing teams to set up cars that sit lower to the track — its bumps included — and create more downforce.

In Cup Series qualifying, 23 cars broke the previous track record set in 2013, a trend seen at a number of the Cup Series' other tracks this year.

"It may be bumpy and it may be uncomfortable and it may make for a long day, but it's certainly navigable," Simendinger said.

If track officials do decide to make changes, Simendinger said they won't come before the Nationwide Series returns to Kentucky this September.

Jonathan Lintner can be reached at (502) 582-4199. Follow him on Twitter @JonathanLintner.