| The famous NASCAR races have made many tracks famous too. Currently NASCAR has approximately 29 racetracks in America and in Mexico a Busch race track. Most of these tracks are ground to prestigious races like Busch, Craftsman Truck Series and Nextel. Many tracks are exclusive to one particular series. For example Pocono Raceway currently holds only Nextel Race. Some popular race tracks like Daytona Speedway can be seen racing two times a year.
The specialty in every NASCAR racetrack is its uniqueness. This is also one reason that holds NASCAR interesting to the competitors and spectators. From race to race, week to week, there are varying challenges the racers and team have to meet. It could be anything from tire wear, gas mileage, horsepower, and handling.
Each NASCAR race track varies in length and shape. Three terms are used to refer to tracks depending on their length. If a racetrack is less than 1 mile, the track is called a short track. If a track is longer than 2 miles the track is called a superspeedway. Tracks which fall in-between these lengths are referred to as intermediate tracks. The typical shape is oval race tracks. The varying length of these racetracks are visible when we take into account the shortest race track, Martinsville Speedway, which is 0.53 miles and the longest race track, Talladega Superspeedway of length 2.66 miles. Tri-oval tracks are popular, for example, Michigan International Speedway. Lowe’s Motor Speedway situated in North Carolina is well known for its quad-oval shape of track. Darlington Raceway is an oval with varying length ends. Pocono Raceway is famous for its unique triangular oval shape. As a welcome challenge to drivers, NASCAR has two races, which are of complex shapes with different types of turns.
Each racetrack is also unique because of the banking in the turns. Every track has varying degrees of banking. This holds the reason for diverse top speeds and diverse handing on each course. This too makes the race drivers and even their racing cars to adjust from race to race in the way they get ready and race on the big day.
Talladega superspeedway and Daytona are referred to as restrictor plate tracks. These tracks are more than 2 miles in length and contain high banking, which allows drivers to go to extreme speeds more than 200 miles per hour. As a step to make these tracks safe, it is mandatory for cars to include restrictor plates to slow the car down.
In the end, it is the exclusivity of each NASCAR race track that makes it appealing to watch. It is not just a car race, but it IS THE car race. Different teams and drivers shine on varying categories of tracks, but a true champion will shine on all. |
