Does Texas Motor Speedway need another repave or reconfiguration?
Ever since the surface of Texas Motor Speedway was dug up, the first two turns were reconfigured and a new surface was put down, the racing has not quite been the same.
Part of that is just a natural byproduct of repaving a race track. Unfortunately, the Texas repave also occurred at a point in time when people in positions of power were deciding they also needed to reconfigure the race track.
Speedway Motorsports recycled its idea from Kentucky Speedway, deciding to reconfigure only one end of the track.
It was not a good one.
The first two turns at Texas are super wide, but the drivers hardly use a quarter of the available race track. The other end is super high-speed like it was before. The repave made the raceable track much more narrow.
The decline in the quality of racing at Texas has led to much speculation about another repave and redesign in the future. Will Texas be turned into a superspeedway? Will the track reverse course in turns 1 and 2?
Over time, tracks do eventually age and wear, and the track should one day age enough to make racing at Texas fast and fun again. I was prepared to encourage readers to pump the brakes on Texas hot takes.
Then, the weepers returned.
As much as I have disliked the Texas repave, I was in the grandstands that fateful afternoon that turned into evening one cold November day in Fort Worth.
When a brief, light shower passed through, I thought nothing of it. I had seen heavier rain, and the storm didn’t last for too long, so there was plenty of time for the drying crew to get the track ready.
I believe it was six hours later when the green flag finally flew. Cracks in the ground were seeping through, dampening the pavement, a major danger to cars on slick tires traveling at high speeds through a banked corner. While I was sad when the repave was announced, I was confident the weepers would be a problem of the past.
I was wrong.
Less than a decade later, returning weepers cancelled Xfinity Series practice and qualifying earlier this week, leaving me wondering what the point of the previous repave even was.
With all of that said, it is absolutely time to consider returning Texas Motor Speedway to its former glory. Not as a superspeedway. Not as an oddity with two opposite ends. Texas Motor Speedway deserves to be a speedy, edgy, fun mile-and-a-half racetrack once again.
Can Chase Elliott break his winless streak again?
The lone 2024 event at Texas Motor Speedway did feature a number of exciting moments, one of which included Chase Elliott getting his first win in more than a season.
The win for the No. 9 broke a long winless streak and put a hold on questions about Elliott’s lackluster performances in 2023 after returning from a back injury and serving a suspension.
Here we are now, another year later, and NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver is on another growing winless streak.
By no means has Elliott been bad this season. After all, he’s fourth in points. But the No. 9 has really just been under the radar all year. He’s led just 45 laps in the first 10 races, with few eye-popping moments and a best finish of fourth.
Returning to Texas is a big opportunity for Elliott to get back into victory lane. At this point, it’s not about any doubt to his driving ability. NASCAR needs its most popular driver consistently contending for wins, and Elliott needs a win — maybe two or three — to get out of a stagnant moment in his career.
How should NASCAR schedule breaks for the lower series?
The Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway is the 12th straight race to start the 2025 season. It’s the most consecutive races the series has ever had at the beginning of a year.
After Texas, the series gets a well-deserved two weeks off until it returns to action. Between the long start for the Xfinity Series and the wildly irregular Truck Series schedule, it begs the question: How can NASCAR make season breaks possible without interrupting the flow of the schedule?
It’s a great way to start the season by having all three NASCAR national series race on the same weekend. It’s also a fantastic finish to have them all crown a champion at the same time.
Between February and November, however, the schedules become a nightmare to keep up with. The Xfinity Series goes from having the longest stretch to start of all three to only racing once in a month’s time. Then, the series is back on for nearly the rest of the summer.
Meanwhile, the Truck Series raced two weeks to start, then took two weeks off. Later this summer, the series has a period of four races over nearly three months — and those races are supposed to lead into the playoffs!
The solution to the problem is not more races. Instead, we know the number of races in the schedule. We also know how many off weeks it will require to stretch the season to match the Cup schedule.
NASCAR needs to plan the Xfinity and Truck schedules with more consistent off weeks. That may mean mixing up what tracks the Trucks go to in order to pair up with the Cup Series. It may also mean less tripleheaders.
The best possible solution in my book is to apply consistent off weeks first. If the schedule is unfavorable for a tripleheader, take one of the series out for a one-off at a different venue in a different market.
It’s a change that needs to be looked at to keep consistency and momentum flowing in a season.
Which Xfinity Series drivers will return from break the strongest?
Speaking of the Xfinity Series, teams and drivers have two weeks off before racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Technically, since Charlotte is a home race, teams don’t have to travel very far until Nashville on May 31.
So far in 2025, Chevrolets have won nine of the 11 races. Toyotas have won the other two. The most dominant team across all disciplines has been JR Motorsports.
After the two week break, three drivers I am keeping my eye on are Carson Kvapil, Jesse Love and Connor Zilisch.
Let’s start with Kvapil. The former CARS Tour ace has really impressed so far this year even though his finishes don’t show it. The No. 1 JR Motorsports entry consistently has speed, and Kvapil has racecraft far beyond his years.
Of the young drivers in the JRM stable, Zilisch has the most hype. However, I feel like Kvapil is way closer to Zilisch in ability than we take him for.
Once Kvapil gets that first win — which he will — watch out for those floodgates to open.
This year, Love has been impressive as well. Richard Childress Racing has three credited wins, but all three came at superspeedways. In his second season, Love has shown much better speed, and his confidence is far beyond what it was a year ago.
After break ends, Love has the chance to find a groove returning to more places he has experience at.
As for Zilisch, the No. 88 has had some horrible luck after running well on ovals in recent weeks. When the Charlotte race rolls around, Zilisch will hopefully be ready to hop back in that car and continue growing his oval skills.
The real reason I expect Zilisch to return from the break stronger is because of the stretch of schedule from mid-June to mid-July that includes three road courses in five races.
Despite the bad luck, those three races provide a big opportunity to Zilisch to find playoff points and wind up in victory lane once again.
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!