Smokin' Las Vegas

Tony Stewart is not convinced.

The races at Vegas Motor Speedway the last few years have been good to great and seemed headed for more of the same.  But track owner Bruton Smith wanted more.  More speed.  More close racing.  He thinks he's going to get it with the new configuration, debuting this weekend.  Smoke does not concur.

I thought they screwed up a really nice race track," Stewart said Wednesday. "They had a track that every year was getting better and better, and the racing was getting better and better."

New tracks take time to break in.  Vegas was already broken in.

(Las Vegas) was actually a unique and fun race track," Stewart said. "Why would you take a track like Vegas that's almost the same age (as Texas) and now redo it again, and have to go through the whole aging process all over again. It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

I don't enjoy very many 400 mile races on these mile and a half tracks.  Las Vegas had become an exception.  If the changes morph it into something like Atlanta Motor Speedway, then I'm OK with it.  I just hope we don't end up with another Chicagoland or K.C.  This last quote from Tony does not ease my apprehension.

"We could go down and it could be the best race NASCAR has ever had in their existence, and I could be 100 percent wrong," Stewart said. "But from what I saw in the test, it's not going to be a very fun race."

We roll the dice Saturday in the Busch race.

Picture credit Getty Images for NASCAR.

Comments

[Steve]

If I had a dollar for every race car driver that didn't like a particular track--I'd never have to work again. Every race track has a contingent of drivers that either love it, or hate it. Some drivers have actually run a race or two on the tracks, within the current paramaters, before they start spouting off about it.

"I thought they screwed up a really nice race track,"

Tony; why don't you wait and see how things go with the new tires on the new track, when you are actually racing with others. Everyone seems to think Miami-Homestead was GREATLY improved with its variably banking.

Tony--SHUT UP AND RACE!