{"id":1170,"date":"2024-05-13T22:14:16","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T02:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.savethespeedway.net\/?p=1170"},"modified":"2024-05-13T22:14:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T02:14:22","slug":"nascar-all-star-race-week-begins-with-a-close-look-at-pavement-and-tire-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.savethespeedway.net\/index.php\/2024\/05\/13\/nascar-all-star-race-week-begins-with-a-close-look-at-pavement-and-tire-options\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR All-Star Race Week Begins with a Close Look at Pavement and Tire Options"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2013 <\/strong>Members of the media were able to see the new asphalt of North Wilkesboro Speedway up-close and personal during pace car rides with NASCAR on FOX broadcaster and 1996 NASCAR All-Star Race winner, Michael Waltrip, and zMAX CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car driver Brenden \u201cButterbean\u201d Queen. Also available for interviews were Steve Swift, Senior Vice President of Operations and Development for Speedway Motorsports, Kip Childress, Executive Director of the zMAX CARS Tour, and Carson Kvapil, driver of the No. 8 JR Motorsports Late Model Stock Car. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media members climbed aboard the Chevrolet Camaro pace cars to experience the unique characteristics of the .625-mile track with Waltrip, who raced on the previous surface from 1983-1996, and Queen, who won last year\u2019s Window World 125 CARS Tour Late Model Stock Car event. In addition to pace car rides, examples of the Goodyear tire options for the All-Star Race, including the \u201cPrime\u201d or regular tire and the \u201cOption\u201d or softer tires, as well as the wet weather tire, were available to examine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMarcus Smith is a genius, and what Marcus did with this place, renovating it, yet capturing the nostalgic feel that it has, and the retro feeling, fixing it up, but not losing sight of what North Wilkesboro used to be all about,\u201d said Waltrip. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a great, great week, we\u2019re going to have the late models, the CARS Tour, the trucks and then Sunday night, the big NASCAR Cup All-Star Race.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just going to make it more aggressive when there\u2019s grip,\u201d Waltrip added. \u201cWhen there\u2019s an abundance of grip you want to run the shortest way around the race track and so if you\u2019re running the shortest way around the race track, but somebody behind you is a little bit better, passing is more difficult which means it becomes more physical. You gotta bump a little bit to get people up out of the way. It\u2019ll be interesting to see if the upper grove comes in too. There\u2019s all these nuances to new pavement and how the cars stick in different grooves in the corners. And then you take all that into consideration and you throw in these soft tires that they\u2019re going to have to deal with and it\u2019s going to be pretty intriguing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Queen commented on having the challenge of racing against some NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series drivers this week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never try to dwell on that, but it\u2019s cool to see the bigger names in the Late Model race and like last year to know that I won and beat them all, it was really, really special,\u201d said Queen. \u201cWe go there and do our job and put our helmet on and do our job. You want to beat the best and we love to race against them. To be the best you gotta beat the best. We love when they come and run with us because it puts a bigger spotlight on our series.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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