Most drivers prepared for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 by running laps in a simulator that incorporated the carousel into the program.
But the reality of the new stretch of track connecting Turns 4 and 7 wasn’t what Paul Menard expected.
“It was cool,” said Menard, who was 11th fastest in Friday’s opening practice. “I’ve watched it a bunch on TV with IndyCar and sportscars. It’s smaller than what I thought. I thought it would be wider, a more opened-up corner than it is.
“It’s really pretty narrow and kind of a short corner. I was thinking it would be more like the carousel at Road America. This is a lot shorter and some pretty big elevation changes.”
The new configuration that incorporates Turns 5 and 6 also transforms Turn 7 into a second hairpin on a course that already features tight Turn 11.
“Yeah, we aren’t even on the same race track as we used to be,” Menard said. “We used to run long and do a 160-degree corner and now we bypass that and do that double right a little tighter. It’s a totally different corner now.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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