Hole in track suspends Daytona 500 for a second time
NASCAR officials look on as workers repair damage to the track during one of two red-flag stoppages during the Daytona 500. // Jerry Markland, Getty Images for NASCAR
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Daytona 500 was suspended for a second time with 39 laps remaining due to a hole in Daytona International Speedway's track between turns 1 and 2.
Track workers spent 1 hour and 40 minutes repairing the hole after the first red flag came out on lap 123, but problems with the track surface reemerged on lap 161.
Jimmie Johnson, who earlier damaged a tire and the right front of his car after he believes he hit the hole, told his team that the hole was about 18 inches long and about six inches wide.
“It seemed we may have hit that hole down there and did some damage to the tire and then the tire blew,” Johnson said. “We wish we didn’t hit the hole. We lost all the track position.”
It would be hard for drivers to race without hitting the hole.
“It’s in the low line,” said Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin. “It’s right where the right-side tires actually run. It is a hazard right now. … It’s not big enough for a tire to go into but it is big enough to graze it and maybe cut one.”
NASCAR was struggling to fix the track because of heavy rains in the last month.
“The combination of the moisture and the cold temperatures, the normal solutions you normally use to patch the track are not working,” NASCAR Chairman Brian France said on Fox during the telecast. “But we’re actually turning the corner. We’re on our third different solution. … We will get it solved in the midst of probably our best Daytona 500 in a long, long time.”
Daytona International Speedway President Robin Braig said last year that the track could be repaved sometime by the end of 2012. It was repaved in 1978. Braig said a year ago it would cost about $20 million to repave the track.
Drivers have debated whether the track needs to be repaved, with some saying the bumps give it character and others saying there’s not enough grip.
Leading when the race was halted was Richard Childress Racing’s Clint Bowyer.
