“The Glen”, yes, Watkins Glen International, is what I am talking about. This unique track, covering 2.45 miles is a winding road course the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series runs, in additional to other series, where the other series run a little longer course, is having an entire facelift as we like to call the movement happening.
President of Watkins Glen International, Michael Printup, summed it up perfectly.
“We’re completely ripping it up. In some places all the way to the ground, in some places not. We do core samples and we study them like every other race track. So we’re going to do a whole redo. We’re going to shut down for the rest of the year because we have another 80 days of racing that we typically do after NASCAR, but we’re going to rip it up and put a whole new asphalt system down.”
This is just not a normal facelift, better known as a repave. You see, this will entail 7,000 tons of aggregate, 2,500 tons of concrete, 27,000 gallons of bituminous tack coat and 25,000 tons of asphalt. So essentially, what does this get you? The same dimensions of of the track surface, which Printup wanted to make very clear
“All the track will remain the same — obviously the track has degraded. Like every other track that has done this before, we laser the track and then the computers will put it all together and then we lay the asphalt right straight back down again.”
Another feature once the repave is complete? The racing in 2016 will be faster and it opens up the possibility NASCAR might run “The Boot”, turns 6 through 9, which currently are not part of the racing when the NASCAR Cup Series has a race at Watkins Glen International.
Although the talk is the repaving is taking place because of the track’s asphalt being old and rundown, I doubt that is the true factor. You see these days it is all about television and the ratings. By making the track faster, the hope is for an increase in exciting racing, where more fans will tune-in and watch. Why does NASCAR and Watkins Glen International need more fans to watch racing at “The Glen”? After looking at the television ratings from this past weekend, which aired on NBCSN, it is evident, as the race on Sunday earned a 2.5 final rating, with 4.0 million viewers, which was down 19% in ratings and viewership over last year on ESPN. Plus, this was the lowest edition of the race since 1999 and least-watched since 2001.
Being these are not numbers you want want to continue with, there had to be some try for improvement.
