CARS Tour, Anderson earn praise for patch job ahead of big race

Anderson Motor Speedway required a patch and repair to its surface in Turn 4 in advance of the CARS Tour event event on Saturday.

A portion of the pavement had been pulled up in the aftermath of Friday practice. The repair job called for a concrete patch to be installed in its place and it held up over the course of two hours of additional practice for both divisions on Saturday.

CARS Tour executive director Kip Childress detailed the process and approach to having the track ready for a highly anticipated event headlined by Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“We noticed the situation during the practice sessions [on Friday],” Childress said. “There were a couple of areas that were of a little concern. It was a fresher asphalt patch from earlier in the season. We had to work with the racetrack to come up with a gameplan to correct it.

“Fortunately part of their ownership group has a paving company. We looked at different options [and] whether or not to go after it with some fresh asphalt or concrete. The concern was that asphalt wouldn’t have time to settle. The track went to work as soon as practice was over.

“They cut up the patch that had been affected to get a good, clean surface to go back to work. They actually went down to where the red clay was so they had some backfill. They were able to get all that filled in and put in two very, very durable concrete patches. We’ve monitored those throughout the practice sessions today, and they have held up well. Kudos to the track staff, to their paving group for jumping right on it.”

Childress expects everything to hold up throughout the races, but they do have contingency plans just in case. He conceded that overall, tonight is an ‘unknown,’ even though there is confidence.

“We looked at the areas after practice and saw no changes whatsoever,” Childress added. “There’s always a possibility that something may go wrong. We will monitor that throughout the race, and between races we will go out and check it very well. We’ll keep our eyes on it.”

After two practice sessions for the Pro Late Models and Late Model Stocks, drivers now have a feel for the patches, and the general consensus is that everything will be fine, but it has affected how the cars handle slightly.

Landon Huffman raced here previously and acknowledged a change in how it drives.

“It’ll be fine,” Huffman said. “It should get better, honestly. It should start gaining rubber and that should help it. The main issue is that it’s a little slick, which you kind of expect with fresh concrete.

“Once it got some laps I think it got better. Definitely better than what it was yesterday.”

The return to Anderson has brought many of the weekly racers to come out and race with the CARS Tour, and they had speed in practice. One of those is Riley Gentry, who has one CARS Tour start this year back at North Wilkesboro.

“It’s doing pretty good right now,” Gentry said. “It seems like if you hit it wrong, [your] whole turn is messed up. It’s hard to compare what it was to what it is now. The owners did a good job, and how quick they did it, this is as good as it’s going to get.”

Another track regular racing tonight is Keith Meredith, who has 40 feature wins this year, including a weekly series win at Anderson last month.

“It’s better than it was,” Meredith said. “There were some potholes over there for sure. I wish they would have left them because I was getting over them pretty good. Now it’s added some speed and grip down in the corner. That’ll probably help some guys who aren’t used to getting over the bumps.”