Drivers try to figure out Bristol’s sticky track

BRISTOL, Tennessee — The moment practice ended at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kurt Busch climbed the steep banking of the concrete bullring. He checked the track temperature, then used his shoes to test the grip of the surface as he scuffed his way back down.

There’s a sticky situation heading into today’s race in Thunder Valley.

“It’s tough to trust, it’s tough to predict,” five-time Bristol winner Busch said.

Bristol officials applied a VHT resin to the track surface that is intended to enhance grip. The TrackBite is much wider than it was last summer, when Bristol first tried it in August in an effort to make a stronger second lane. The top lane for years had been the preferred line, but the wider swath of VHT seems to have made the bottom of the track the place to be as drivers used limited practice time to prepare for Sunday.

Intermittent rain at Bristol has wiped out the notes drivers gathered about the surface because every time they think they’ve figured out a lane, the showers wash off any tire rubber that’s been accumulated. The Xfinity Series race was stopped for rain Saturday, hours after the Cup drivers had completed their final practice.

“The surface was real slick and then it was really grippy and then it started to slicken back up,” Brad Keselowski said.

“It’s going to be an evolving surface race, so that just means it’s going to be tough.

“It’s changing faster than I can keep up with it. This will be a weekend full of things we’ve never seen before, which usually means the field is privy to making a lot of mistakes.”

Seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson said the driver’s council met during the fall and was in favour of Bristol continuing to explore using the VHT because “we were all eager to make sure it was back down and thought that it did offer more options.”