Is Texas Motor Speedway turning a corner? GM Mark Faber on the state of the track

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A few years ago, NASCAR Cup Series star Kyle Larson said of Texas Motor Speedway: “I would like them to demolish this place and then start over from scratch.”

He was far from alone. Ever since the track was repaved and two of the turns were reconfigured in 2017 to make them wider and flatter while keeping the other two turns at the same degree of banking, Texas has been the butt of jokes in the garage. Last year, we wrote how Texas was NASCAR’s “most disparaged track,” detailing how those changes have not worked as intended.

“Racetrack-wise, we all wish we could do more there,” Ross Chastain said then. “It truly is one of the hardest tracks to pass (on). When I get a pass done, I sometimes physically celebrate in the car on the next straightaway because I did what I thought was impossible.”

But then, suddenly, last April saw the best Texas race in years and the only one (out of 16) to top a 70 percent approval rating in my weekly “Was it a good race?” poll, offering a hint the track has turned the corner from two of its corners being an annual punching bag.

Now Texas Motor Speedway executive vice president and general manager Mark Faber is bullish about the upcoming race weekend, rattling off a list of recent on-track successes in an interview with The Athletic: Eight different winners in the last eight Cup Series races, an “Under 30 Club” of young winners in the Next Gen Era (William Byron, Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott) and the second-most green-flag passes ever at Texas last season.

“We’re competitive, we’re proud, and we think we have a lot of great things going on,” Faber said. “We think we’re a really good test in the first part of the year to see who can use it as a springboard to have a successful overall season.”

Below is an edited version of the interview.

In my “Good Race” poll, your most recent race last year was ranked No. 1 out of 16 Texas races, and the year before that was the No. 5 race. That’s a big turnaround from how Texas racing had been regarded. Why do you think that’s happened, and what is the state of the racing there?

We’ve talked to a lot of people about the track, there’s no doubt about it. A few years ago when I started, Marcus (Smith, the Speedway Motorsports owner) and Steve Swift (who oversees track operations for the company), were talking to iRacing about some different modeling and (asking), “What do we want to look at?” There were some people chattering about it.

Since that time, some of that chatter has really died down. We had Christopher Bell in here (for a promotional appearance) and he said, “This is my home track. I want it to be challenging. I don’t want it to be in a single-file race around the track.” Jimmie Johnson called this the “treacherous track.” We take pride in that.

This race weekend will be another indicator about the racing and what people think about it. The past couple have been really, really good.

What is the state of your fan support right now in the market?

We have double-digit increases on our ticket sales year-over-year. Our premium seating, we have several of those areas sold out. Our camping is right now No. 1 in Speedway Motorsports across the tracks so far this year. The move to the first weekend of May has really been embraced by a lot of folks, and we’re going to have one of the best weekends we’ve had in awhile.

To what do you attribute the increase in ticket sales? Is it mostly getting to a better date versus the unpredictable spring weather you had last April?

We obviously talk with NASCAR about scheduling, and one of the things is motorsports moving away from football — especially here in Texas where everyone is raised on football. We’ve got (high school football), college football, pro football. The last time we were in the fall with a September race (in 2023), our Xfinity race was up against a TCU-SMU game, and then we were up against the NFL on Sunday. And then it was oppressively hot; it was 105 degrees and we had some medical issues with fans, staff and teams.

TMS has had a great track record with spring racing, so we moved to April (last year). But we were much closer to COTA (the road course in Austin, which is three hours away), so we wanted to spread the two out and get some separation (on the calendar). … Now we have two months between them where a year ago, fans might have had to pick and choose because the races were so close together.

There’s been a lot of discussion and debate about the racetrack over the years, ever since it got reconfigured. A lot of people have said, “Why can’t they just reconfigure Turns 1 and 2 to make it like Turns 3 and 4?” Others have suggested redoing the entire thing. Some have even noted (converting it to a superspeedway-style track, as happened at Atlanta Motor Speedway) could be an option. You said the discussion has died down a little bit, but how do you see it now in terms of where you stand or what plans could be in the future?

We look at statistics and averages, and we’ve got stats to show the racing is getting better year over year. From spring 2011 to fall 2016 — 12 races before the repave — the average was seven cautions, 21 lead changes, 2.312-second margin of victory. If you look at the 12 races since the repave, the average is 10 cautions, 22.3 lead changes, 1.012-second margin of victory.

So the racing has gotten better, and fans want to see exciting races. They want to see lead changes, they want to see close finishes. We’re going to analyze this upcoming weekend and see how that fits into the averages. People don’t want to see some of the racing where there’s not a lot of lead changes. But we analyze this all the time, and we think we’re moving in the right direction. We’ll take a look at it after the race weekend.

There was a rumor put out by a former NASCAR mechanic that claimed an intermediate track was going to be converted into the next Atlanta. NASCAR’s Mike Forde then came out and said it wasn’t any of the NASCAR-owned tracks, leaving some to speculate it could be a Speedway Motorsports track. But from what you’re saying, there are no current plans right now to turn Texas into an Atlanta? Am I understanding that correctly?

Yeah, I mean, that’s just a rumor. That’s just the best way to put it.

There was a long time when former track president Eddie Gossage would say, “There’s no way we’re going less than 500 miles” for a Texas race. Now the race has been 400 miles for the last two years as part of an industry-wide trend. Have your fans been receptive to that?

We’re fine with the industry-wide trend. It’s been fine from the fan feedback for us as well. So we’re comfortable with the 400 miles.

Texas Motor Speedway, during last April’s Cup Series race. The stained and slick Turns 1 and 2 — which have caused issues for drivers — are visible at right. (Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)

You have that part of the track that was stained from all the traction compound chemicals that were put on it at one point and it’s still been slick despite attempts to clean it. Is there any sense of whether that will eventually go away with age? Do you still have to try and clean that area before a race weekend?

Yeah, it’s aging. It’s aging in the sun, and certainly we coordinate with NASCAR on that. We haven’t applied any (compound) for recent races, and again, it’s just waiting on the age of the sun to go through that process.

What else do you think is important for people to know about your race weekend?

We feel we’re an important track and an important facility to NASCAR, being in the fourth-largest market in the United States. We have heightened interest from fans, the most we’ve had in recent years, and the fan zone is going to be robust. … We’ve got a lot of action going on.

(Top photo of Chase Elliott taking the checkered flag under caution at last year’s Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway: Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)

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