As the zMAX CARS Tour looks to get its Late Model Stock Car season underway this weekend at Southern National Motorsports Park, it seems like a fitting time to check in on an interesting experiment the track did with the racing surface last fall.
The biggest story heading into this weekend is obviously the new era of the series, with new title sponsor zMAX on board, a stacked full-time field with a whopping 32 cars on the entry list and even the unfortunate weather with rain pushing the opener from Saturday to Sunday, March 10.
However, a story that may be lost in all of this is the progression of a quite possibly unnecessary experiment that is still a work in progress.
Ahead of last fall’s Thanksgiving Classic at Southern National, the track decided to repave the very top groove of what is a historically bottom-dominant four-groove racetrack.
This left a strip of fresh asphalt around the top of both ends of the track, while the rest of the track remained the same.
The track also put traction compound down on the racing surface in the third groove, just below the fresh asphalt of the top line.
The goal of both changes was to provide more viable lane choices for drivers to utilize and ultimately promote more side-by-side racing, rather than every car being stuck on the bottom of the racetrack.
Unfortunately, neither change has been effective to this point, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t successful. While the thought of this change progressing to effectiveness is intriguing, the end of last year’s Thanksgiving Classic provides an argument that the change isn’t necessary at all.
There are two major reasons why both the traction compound and the repaved top line have proved to be ineffective at this point, those being distance and the track’s cleanliness.
The first of these two reasons is that both are the long way around. Both ends of the racetrack at SNMP are extremely wide, from the entry of the corner all the way to the exit. So even with the added grip from a fresh strip of asphalt of the PJ1 compound, the added drive off the corner doesn’t make up for the time lost by taking the long way around.
This obviously affects the top lane more than the third, but both provide more opportunity to lose time than gain it.
The second reason is the simple fact that the track is dirty, which isn’t a knock on the track itself, but rather just a nature of short track racing compared to the higher levels of the sport.
NASCAR tracks that put down substances such as PJ1 and resin are always vacuumed before hand and kept clean until the substance is put down and cars hit the track for the first time. The tracks are then kept clean throughout the weekend on most occasions.
However, tracks like Southern National don’t always have access to the equipment needed to replicate that same success. So we get the results we have to this point.
With an already dirty track, the “marbles” get kicked up to the higher groove. And in this case, they stick to the traction compound, essentially neutralizing the positive effects of said compound.
On the flip side, anyone who watched the last 30 laps of last year’s Thanksgiving Classic would mostly argue until the end of time that a change isn’t needed.
The battle between Brenden Queen, Josh Berry and Kaden Honeycutt was one of the best in Late Model Stock Car history. It was made possible by the one-lane racetrack and the three not having anywhere else to go.
Additionally, the Pro Late Model race this past weekend wasn’t too bad either. The bottom lane provided great racing late in the race, as all the drivers fought for the same real estate.
Using traction compound on a racetrack is risky business. It can turn out great, but it also has the opportunity to turn out pretty bad as well.
For example, look at a track like Texas Motor Speedway. There’s not much comparison to Southern National in terms of track features, but the track surface at Texas has been all but ruined by PJ1, leaving the track as basically a one-groove racetrack.
On the flip side, Bristol Motor Speedway, a track much more comparable to Southern National, has made the traction compound work. Both the previously dominant top groove and the applied bottom groove work hand-in-hand.
So after seeing the changes be ineffective through two races, while those two races turned out to be outstanding without the help of an outside lane, the track has now reached a fork in the road.
On one hand, the track can be left alone to keep producing racing like the end of last year’s Classic. On the other, it can push forward with the vision of a multi-groove facility.
If Southern National chooses to go in the direction of track reworks, the question becomes with what and how. At that point, there truly is no going back.
The track could try to move the compound down one more groove to the second lane, or it could even repave more of the racetrack.
Repaving down to the third groove could prove to be effective but still could be too far around, while repaving down to the second groove could eliminate the bottom altogether. So those decisions have to be made carefully.
No matter which direction the track goes in, Southern National will continue to put on great racing like it always has. Whether that racing comes with or without new asphalt remains to be seen.
At the end of the day, Southern National is a great facility and one the CARS Tour should continue to go to for years to come because the Diaz family does a fantastic job with the venue. Kudos to them for trying something new, even if it proves to be unnecessary in the end.
Chase began working with Frontstretch in the spring of 2023 as a news writer, while also helping fill in for other columns as needed. Chase is now the main writer and reporter for Frontstretch.com's CARS Tour coverage, a role which began late in 2023. Aside from racing, some of Chase's other hobbies include time in the outdoors hunting and fishing, and keeping up with all things Philadelphia sports related.