Gaughan Tries Out "New" Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Craftsman Truck Series driver, Brendan Gaughan had the chance to experience the newly configured Las Vegas Motor Speedway today. The opportunity came via the Speedway’s public relations department and had Gaughan giving rides to the media in Petty Driving Experience cars. The following quotes are from Gaughan following his time on the new high-banked configuration.

Impressions of the new LVMS

I liked the old track so I’m not one of those guys that didn’t like the old LVMS configuration. I got to talk to the guys who constructed it and they’re really proud of it. They’ve done a really good job of making it parabolic. There are no seams where the banking rises. Other tracks that have tried parabolic banking you always can see where they’ve gone from one banking level to the next. There’s a split line there almost. But not here --- it’s totally seamless.

The Las Vegas Motor Speedway front straight lends itself to a much more friendly and racy straightaway. At Charlotte, Atlanta, Texas those places, with their flat double dogleg, it can get dicey where you get a little nervous getting through there. This place seems like you’re going to be able to go two or three wide at the start / finish line much easier than those places. I can’t wait for the Goodyear test next week. Then the Craftsman Truck race is the first event on the new surface, on September 23rd.

The track looks a little narrower, is it?

They didn’t narrow the track up. It’s the same width, maybe a little wider. With the pit road being so far out now it gives the illusion that they had to take race track someplace. If anything the racetrack is wider now. You’ll definitely be able to run more grooves. Look at Homestead when they went to multiple banking. The top groove could be pretty quick.