While Joey Logano wouldn’t go as far to say the racing during this past Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Texas Motor Speedway was bad, he does believe there’s a potential fix to improve the racetrack even more.
Logano, speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Tuesday, revealed that the resin PJ1 applied to the track surface at Texas years ago is still there today. Logano said it prevents drivers from using the outside line in races due to how slick the track is in those spots. If NASCAR could figure out a way to remove that from the track, the racing at Texas “would be better,” Logano said.
“The resin PJ1 stuff that they sprayed down years ago [and] races ago, is still on the racetrack,” Logano said. “And I don’t know if it collects dust on top of it, but it’s sticky. You can feel it, it’s still sticky. And I think when you’re not on it under caution, those type of things, the sticky catches all the dust off the car. The break dust, rubber dust, just garbage in the air. And the first few laps you go up there, it’s complete ice. So, it prevents cars from going up there sooner. Somebody’s gotta be the person that’s brave enough to clean it off. Or enough cars have to make mistakes and clean it off before it gets really fast.
“I wish there was a way to take that stuff off. I don’t know how to do that. But I think the racing would be better if you didn’t have that crap up there. It’s hard for me to say the racing is bad there, like it was pretty decent on a few occasions, I just think if we can get up there sooner, it would be better. … You move up the racetrack and you’re just on eggshells. Is it ready yet? Am I gonna get up too high and this thing’s gonna take off all the way into the fence? You’re just on this razor’s edge where you can’t just fire it off in there till you get your confidence worked up that it’s gonna be OK. And we’ve raced on it a long time.”
Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin detail issues at Texas Motor Speedway
Logano finished P11 at Texas as Ford’s winless streak this season stretched to nine. Like Logano, Denny Hamlin had his issues with the track surface at Texas.
“If we didn’t have that PJ1 or resin or whatever, I think there would be potential for Texas to be okay,” Hamlin said on his Actions Detrimental podcast. “When they were building the banking and all that, they had tunnels that can cut underneath… So over time, the soil settles underneath the pavement, and that’s when these huge bumps swell. The reason we don’t run up the track at Texas as much is ’cause there’s a giant, giant bump.
“Surely there must be some other chemical out there… even if it stains the track, who cares? The track looks like crap anyway when it comes to the surface. It’s patched up, beat up, peeling all over the place. Why not find something that would eat away that old PJ1, because it’s pinned us down to the bottom.”
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