Pavement a concern for CARS Tour race at Orange County on Saturday

Before technical inspection and practice for the CARS Tour race weekend at Orange County Speedway, Lee Pulliam walked the track and came back to the inspection line with three concrete slabs that he pulled out of the racing surface.

It’s coming apart pretty bad.

Better to come up by his hands than to be pulled up during a track session, or worse, the race on Saturday night.

“I think everyone is a little bit concerned,” said the four-time NASCAR Weekly Series national champion turned team owner. “But it’s one of those things where it’s the same for everyone. This is such a cool place to race and hopefully there won’t be any problems.”

Pulliam knows darn well what a track coming apart can do to both a race and a season. Tri-County Motor Speedway was coming up in 2018 and ruptured his alternator belt and it ultimately cost him the points that could have won his the driver championship that year.

“We just hope we’re one of the lucky ones this year,” Pulliam said.

CARS Tour executive director Kip Childress said he has been at the property since Wednesday and kept a close eye on the racing surface. He says they’re a little nervous but that they hope they can get through the weekend and reassess with track ownership for future races.

Brenden Queen is the ace driver for Pulliam this year, and like his boss man, hit a piece of pavement at Orange County in the Orange Blossom Shootout in October last year and knows how that can detail a race too.

“I hit that piece running second to Deac (McCaskill) in that orange blossom last year, and I never even saw it, until I was going in, almost into the wall,” he said. “So, I don’t really think there’s anything as a driver you can do.

“There’s so many cracks, they all look the same, so you just got to run your race and hope you’re not the guy that hits it.”

CARS Tour Brandon Pierce has more series starts at this track than anyone and he thinks that helps.

“To a certain degree, the track is the track but I’ve been coming here for a long time and I kind of know where everything is here,” he said. “The only place that’s gotten worse is (Turns) 3 and 4 and unfortunately, that’s the line I like to run.

“I don’t think it’s a fight or flight deal yet. I’m glad we’re back here and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think it could come up or have a caution or two for it but the SMART (Modified) Tour ran here a few weeks ago and they didn’t have any problems.”

Marcus Richmond, who owns both a team and a chassis builder under the R&S Race Cars banner, has an invested interest in the well-being of numerous cars this weekend.

“These cars are heavier so they might have a tendency to pull some track up but I mean I guess it’s just the cards we are all dealt and hopefully nobody gets nothing tore up,” Richmond said.

He also said something that is shared by a lot of the field. They like racing at Orange County. They like the number of lanes the old surface provides. It’s fast.

Hopefully, a full repave isn’t in its future.

“I don’t think the whole surface needs to be done,” Richmond said. “It just needs to be patched up, maybe like what Pensacola did, one section at a time. Like, a full repave would take the character out of this place.”

Pierce loves a worn out race track and conceded it would break his heart if it got fully paved anytime soon.

“I do think this place races a lot like Tri County and I would love to see this place, because it needs some work, maybe get a sectional pave to kind of save the kind of racing we have now because I love it.”

Landon Huffman, who is no stranger to worrying about surface disrepair at Hickory and Tri-County also took a ‘it is what it is’ approach.

“One of the coolest things about this place, is that it is already fast, so if they pave it, it will be hauling the freaking mail,” he said. “There are some holes in it that will break your ankle, but at the same time, it has a lot of character and is a lot of fun and it should put on a good show.”