Everybody’s a Rookie Today at Richmond Track

No matter how much experience they have, NASCAR’s Winston Cup drivers all will become rookies again this week.

When the Miller 400 gets the green flag today, it will be the first race ever run at Richmond International Raceway.

“Everybody’s real excited about the track,” said Ken Schrader, who is fourth in the season points standings. “We’re all talking about it and can’t wait for that first race here. It should be real interesting with everyone starting from basically the same level.”

Earlier this year, Richmond International Raceway was Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway, an aging facility with a half-mile track, seating for only 29,000 and a retaining wall made of steel guardrails instead of the usual concrete barrier.

But after the last Winston Cup stop here on Feb. 21, the track generally regarded as the circuit’s most antiquated underwent substantial changes.

Within minutes after Neil Bonnett took the checkered flag in the February race, the track was being torn up by bulldozers, one of them manned by Richard Petty, the all-time leader in victories at the layout.

As the months passed, the old racing surface disappeared, as did the guardrails, the main grandstand and the VIP boxes atop it.

By June, the infield had been lowered to improve viewing for those sitting in the lower rows, and a new track had been etched out and graded in the clay. A concrete retaining wall encircled the new layout.

Paving began in July, and took nearly a month to complete.

When it was done, the new track bore no resemblance to the old half-mile oval. The shape, length and layout of the new layout make Richmond unique on the Winston Cup trail.

The new surface is the only three-quarter mile track on the circuit. Its rounded-off “D” configuration is similar but not identical to those at Daytona and Talladega. The degrees of banking are different at Richmond than at the other two, and while Daytona and Talladega each are just over 40 feet wide, Richmond is 60 feet wide with a 10-foot apron, which speedway officials hope will promote three- and four-abreast racing.

The new track is banked 14 degrees in the turns. Daytona is 31 degrees and Talladega 33 degrees.

Track President Paul Sawyer said he tried to incorporate the best features of the other Winston Cup tracks in building his new speedway, a layout he labels an action track.

“I think I’ve built a better mousetrap,” Sawyer said.

The unique qualities of the track mean the Winston Cup drivers all will be starting from scratch in terms of experience this week.

The few exceptions are Schrader and a handful of others who had a chance to begin set-up work on their cars in limited testing runs last month after the paving was finished.

“It’ll favor the teams that really have worked together for a long time, are really communicating good with one another as far as the chassis man and the driver and stuff, because we’re all going into an unknown,” Schrader said.

“The ones that can get their car handling the best will have an advantage,” he said. “A lot of the places, you’ll have a new team and driver combination, but they’ll go to a track that they’ve both been going to with maybe different people, but they’ve both been going there for 10 years. But everybody starts at square one here.”

Sawyer originally had planned to expand seating capacity to about 38,000 for today’s race, but ticket sales outpaced supply through the spring and summer. The track also became a popular lunchtime spot, as on weekdays 100 or more people would bring their lunches to the track, sit in the stands and watch the construction in progress. On weekends, the crowds were larger.

“This was day after day after day,” Sawyer said. “I knew there was going to be some interest, but not to the extent that it reached. It just boggled my mind.”

As the summer progressed, Sawyer kept ordering and installing more seating, and the fans kept buying tickets. All 53,103 seats have been sold, and Sawyer plans to sell several thousand general admission and infield tickets on this morning.

Despite all the improvements, Schrader predicted one thing may not change today at the new track, which has the largest seating capacity of any sports facility in Virginia.

“I think you’re going to see typical Richmond--slam, bang, crash,” he said.