NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — A trio of NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series drivers participated in a Goodyear Tire Test on Tuesday at historic North Wilkesboro Speedway in preparation for the upcoming Wright Brand 250 on NASCAR All-Star Race weekend.
The Wright Brand 250 on Saturday afternoon, May 18, will get North Wilkesboro fans ready for Sunday night’s main feature, the 2024 NASCAR All-Star Race.
Completed last November, the resurfacing process included milling approximately two inches of the old track, repairing failing spots, sealing and adding a specially designed asphalt mixture in the same configuration as the original track, including the 13 degrees of banking in the corners. Speedway Motorsports staff used a special mix that is expected to age faster than traditional asphalt, creating a more “worn-in” surface more quickly. Carl Rose & Sons Asphalt, the original paving contractor for North Wilkesboro Speedway, supplied nearly 2,000 tons of specialty asphalt for the project, while North Carolina-based Delta Contracting managed the milling process.
Defending series champion Ben Rhodes, Christian Eckes and Corey Heim were the drivers who participated.
“It’s got a lot of grip, it’s certainly a lot different than last year,” Heim explained. “I started off the day by running pretty much the exact same line that I did last year on the old pavement, and there’s really no reason to have your entry so straight, and go so straight now with all the grip, you can make it more of a circle and use a lot more race track. It’s going to be tough to see how the race goes.
“There’s definitely no second groove today, as most repaves are, they’re pretty single-grooved for a while until we work it in. Props to NASCAR for having us work the second groove in I think it’ll help the Cup guys get acclimated and hopefully make it raceable right from the start.”
Rhodes said there is no comparison between the track now and last year.
“It’s not even the same race track, and really when we started the day, never having a truck or car or anything run on this place to all the rubber we put on it, it’s not the same race track as eight hours ago,” he said. “It’s changed a lot, I think it’s rubbered in well. The challenge is considerable, we came here with a totally separate truck, totally separate package, way different thinking, even when we unloaded we were absolute garbage. It took us quite some time to get dialed in, but those other guys were fast right off the bat, we got dialed in and I think we’re comparable on speeds now. So I feel really good about that.”
Eckes believes the racing will be better this year.
“It was super cool last year and now with the new pavement this year I think it will be even better,” Eckes said. “I know a lot of people wanted it to stay, but it wasn’t a very good race in my opinion last year so to see that change is good. Just the history of this place coming in here and knowing the legends that have raced here, is pretty cool.
“I think a better race. The top was nonexistent last year and I felt like just those thirty, forty laps we ran got it better and got it competitive, competitive enough to race. I think it’s going to be a lot of passing compared to last year, but I really like what they’ve done so far.”