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Last Surviving Track With Remnants of NASCAR’s Golden Era Forces Joey Logano Into Hypocrisy

Published 04/05/2024, 11:00 AM EDT

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USA Today via Reuters

“No track should have more than one [race]!”, is what Joey Logano might opine on any given day when it comes to the NASCAR Cup schedule. However, when it comes to the Richmond Raceway, the racer seems to have some double standards! With rumors suggesting how the Virginia track will be down to hosting one race in the future, the Team Penske star asserted that he’d rather see multiple events at the venue, in a recent conversation with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. But why does the driver love “America’s premier short track” so much?

Joey Logano reveals why he loves Richmond Raceway so much

Having been a part of NASCAR Cup racing since the 1950s, Richmond track is one of the original tracks on the schedule. While that already makes it high on the community members’ lists, that’s not why Joey Logano has an affinity to the track. What instead draws his attention is the traditional and natural tire wear. Now some would say that Bristol had much higher tire wear, but a big reason for that was the resin laid on the track. However, at Richmond, it happens naturally, like it used to in the old days.

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“Gosh Richmond’s so cool. It’s one of those race tracks. I would like to race there in a weekly series. I think I would really like that one mainly because it is one of the only racetracks where we have tire fall-offs anymore. Darlington and Richmond, name another one where we have that much,” he said.

The reason, as per Logano, that tire fall-off has reduced drastically at the Cup Series tracks is technology. The asphalt that is laid today for repaving purposes is a lot different from what it used to be in the past. Technology is usually considered to enhance a sporting experience, but in this scenario, that was not the case.

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What are some of the tracks that have lost Richmond’s quality?

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The former two-time Cup Series champion mentioned several tracks where drivers used to experience tire fall-off but not anymore. These tracks included iconic venues like Fontana, Charlotte, and Atlanta. The Atlanta Motor Speedway was last repaved in 2022 after 25 years. Charlotte, on the other hand, is coming close to two decades since new asphalt was laid on its surface back in 2006. The Fontana track is being rebuilt at the moment and will see a new layer of asphalt soon.

“You used to have Fontana, you used to have Atlanta, Texas used to be that way before they repaved it and they repave it with this new asphalt that will last forever. The technology in asphalt is obviously way different than it used to be and it seems like it just lasts forever. And never gets to the point to where it was before they repaved it, and Charlotte even. It’s been a long time since they repaved Charlotte and yeah it’s bumpy but it’s not like there’s a significant amount of tire fall-off there,” he added.

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It will be interesting to see what the future holds for the Richmond Raceway, but do you agree with Joey Logano? Should the Virginia track have multiple races in a season? Let us know your thoughts.

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Written by:

Nilavro Ghosh

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Nilavro Ghosh is a NASCAR Writer at EssentiallySports, where he is known for his creative yet easy-to-read writing style. Before taking up his role as a sports journalist at ES, Nilavro has written for some of the top publishing houses, like The Telegraph. While most journalists stop at covering live events and taking the news to the readers, Nilavro goes the extra mile to give fans a platform for them to express their thoughts through his 'race reaction' pieces.
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Edited by:

Ariva Debnath