The racing surface at Texas Motor Speedway is starting to show signs of positive degradation but there still remains one hurdle for the racing product to overcome in the years ahead.
The deeply stained traction compound embedded within it.
When the track was first repaved and reconfigured ahead of the 2018 season, the surface was treated with PJ1 TrackBite but so much was applied that it became a practical permanent part of the racing dynamic.
But even worse, is that the traction compound wasn’t even applied high enough, and it made for some objectively awful races. It took a long time for IndyCar, which has since stopped racing at the track, to even be able to race confidently on the surface.
The PJ1 needs heat to create the intended traction, but before that, it basically races like black ice. That means it’s exactly slick and treacherous to drive over at first until the heat activates it, which is achieved by driving over it and car exhaust hitting it.
Joey Logano, speaking about the subject during his SiriusXM Radio Show on Tuesday, said that is the last thing still holding back the racing product at Texas Motor Speedway.
“The resin PJ1 stuff that they sprayed down years ago [and] races ago, is still on the racetrack,” Logano said. “And I don’t know if it collects dust on top of it, but it’s sticky. You can feel it, it’s still sticky. And I think when you’re not on it under caution, those type of things, the sticky catches all the dust off the car. The break dust, rubber dust, just garbage in the air.
“And the first few laps you go up there, it’s complete ice. So, it prevents cars from going up there sooner. Somebody’s gotta be the person that’s brave enough to clean it off. Or enough cars have to make mistakes and clean it off before it gets really fast.
“I wish there was a way to take that stuff off. I don’t know how to do that. But I think the racing would be better if you didn’t have that crap up there. It’s hard for me to say the racing is bad there, like it was pretty decent on a few occasions, I just think if we can get up there sooner, it would be better. … You move up the racetrack and you’re just on eggshells. Is it ready yet? Am I going to get up too high and this thing’s going to take off all the way into the fence? You’re just on this razor’s edge where you can’t just fire it off in there till you get your confidence worked up that it’s going to be okay. And we’ve raced on it a long time.”
Denny Hamlin echoed that sentiment during his Actions Detrimental podcast the day prior.
“If we didn’t have that PJ1 or resin or whatever, I think there would be potential for Texas to be okay,” Hamlin said. “When they were building the banking and all that, they had tunnels that can cut underneath… So over time, the soil settles underneath the pavement, and that’s when these huge bumps swell. The reason we don’t run up the track at Texas as much is ’cause there’s a giant, giant bump.
“Surely there must be some other chemical out there… even if it stains the track, who cares? The track looks like crap anyway when it comes to the surface. It’s patched up, beat up, peeling all over the place. Why not find something that would eat away that old PJ1, because it’s pinned us down to the bottom.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.