I have an idea for an unusual NASCAR track.

[downtowndeco]

As the race droned on in NH this past weekend I started thinking. NASCAR seems to have just a couple types of tracks. Big ovals, small ovals & road courses. What I'd love to see is a track designed similar to the type of layout slot guys who have to race on a 4' x 8' or a 4' x 16' have. A long straight (Daytona long) that leads into a sweeping bank, then a back straight that has one or two twisty bits and that leads into a sweep flat curve that goes into a bank then & back onto the long straight. The final kink wold bring the cars below 80 mph. Now that would be a **** of a track to set a car up for & to drive. The drivers & the crew chefs would probably hate it but IMO it would be a game changer. It would make racing exciting & unpredictable again.

Here's the basic gist. I'm no architect or track designer so I'm sure many details would have to change but here's what I envision.

Thoughts?

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[proxieken]

That look interesting. I am a new watcher of Nascar, so I can only comment on recent races. The road courses are the most interesting to me. The short tracks are fun also, but the slower cars go down laps all the time. The super speedways with restrictors seem pointless. It is just a big pack following each other and waiting for a crash to collect cars.

I like the low down force package, which seems a bit like racing with no magnets.

Your track would be great to watch a race on. For slot car racing I would think a simple figure 8 would be nice. Equal lanes. The banked curves are too banked for my liking so I just use regular curves and angle them a bit.

[goosenapper]

[downtowndeco]

I think you're probably right except one thing gives me hope. NASCAR is in a tailspin & just might be desperate enough to start thinking outside of the box. When you can't fill the stands in Bristol on a Saturday night something is wrong.


"It would be tough for car and driver, and is radical enough to be something that NASCAR would never do. They seem pretty set in their ways when it comes to track configurations, with their newer vanilla 1-1/2 mile ovals having slowly taken the place of classic courses with character since the 90's."

[ccobra]

To me the NASCAR issue is simple to fix, when they took the "Stock" out, they lost my interest. Besides how many stock cars these days have a 366 V8 with rear wheel drive?

[texasleaguer]

Somebody should do that track in dirt and they'd have a winner.

[MikeyAutobahn]

I like it. At first I misunderstood it as a mile around in total, and thought that it would be a bit of a traffic jam, but a mile across...that's cool.

It reminds me a little [in the spirit] of the High Speed Ring in Gran Turismo [that's a video game for those unfamiliar]. The elements are similar, but differently placed. Your version keeps the big turn thing going, which would appeal to the fans not wanting too much change, all the while adding different gradient turns and stuff in the backfield to make it interesting, instead of just another long backstretch.

It would be great for teams to have to decide which part of the track they'd have to focus their car setup on. Drama would ensue.

[downtowndeco]

They're doing it. And after I wrote Speedway Motorsports last year & they dismissed the idea to boot. : ) This has more road course than I envisioned but it does use all but 400' of the oval.

http://www.charlottemotorspeedway.co...erica-500.html