On August 10,1996, in a story written by John Sturbin of the Ft. WorthStar-Telegram, Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) General Manager Eddie Gossageclaimed that "the decision of Championship Auto Racing Teams not to raceat the facility in 1997 because of safety concerns about its dual-bankedturns is 'a joke' and 'purely a public relations thing.'"

Gossage claimed that the decision was politically motivated, and wasmainly due to a recently signed three year contract to hold Indy RacingLeague events at the facility.

Gossage said that he was turned off by the negotiations with AndrewCraig, President and CEO of CART, due to what he perceived as "utterarrogance" encountered during the negotiations. He further stated thathe would refuse to sign a then in-hand letter-of-intent from CART, andthat CART's safety concerns were "totally ridiculous."

The concerns were raised after then CART Chief Steward Wally Dallenbachrode several laps around the track in a passenger car. Dallenbachassessed that the transition from the 8 degree banking to the 24 degreebanking was too severe, and would be extremely dangerous at speedsapproaching 200mph. His final reccommendation was that TMS build aproper retention wall to separate the 8 degree track area from the 24degree track area.

This week, in another story released by the Star-Telegram and copyrighted bythe Associated Press, two noteworthy IRL drivers have expressed somesimilar concerns.

In the first testing sessions in preparation for the IRL's debut at TMSfor the night time running of the Longhorn 500 on June 7, drivers BuddyLazier and Tony Stewart are voicing their opinions regarding safetyfactors.

There's currently a white line that separates the two angles of banking,and Stewart commented that "everybody's going to be above that whiteline," and went on to say that the race track would be from the whiteline to the wall. "If you try to straddle that white line, it's going tocause a big problem," he said. His most alarming statement was that"You're going to crash. These cars are very rigid, very stiff. If youturn it at an angle on an edge, it's going to pick two wheels clear offthe ground. It's not a design flaw, it's just the laws of physics."

Lazier wasn't so fortunate to be able to properly assess the situation.His Nissan-Infiniti engine blew after only ten laps on Monday, the firstday of the test session. There was no spare engine available to theteam, owned by Ron Hemelgarn. Buddy did go on to say, though, "I'm notfocussing on the negative...it's an awsome race track."

These conflicting stories would seem to raise a bit of a caution flag tospeedway mogul Bruton Smith. The investment in the Texas Motor Speedwaymust have, by now, exceeded the $110 million dollars originallyearmarked for the construction of the facility. And yet, less than 45days before the opening event at the track, the Interstate Batteries 500NASCAR event, concerns are just now being raised about the potential fordanger, and the potential for having to make track modifications isalready at hand.

Chevys, Fords, and Pontiacs will compete in the April 6 race. They are,by all means, much different vehicles than the light-weight openwheelers that compete in the IRL series. They may face the same dangersthough, by virtue of their prefered line around the track, which isintended to be the 24 degree portion of the banking. In order to set upfor an oval with such steep banks, teams will be running a tightsuspension setting to avoid the cars' bottoming out in the turns. Shouldanother pass occur like the one Jeff Gordon put on Bill Elliot inSunday's Daytona 500, the ensuing crash would have come much sooner, andlikely would have taken more cars out of the race.Making a pass that begins low on the apron of TMS, and ends up above thetransition of the two bank angles, could very well raise two wheels offthe ground. That's just the kind of transition danger that Stewartrefers to.

Let's place a small bit of scientific measure into this picture. If acar simply follows the same line around the track as the transition, butwith two left tires on the 8 degree banking and two right tires on the24 degree banking, the amount of tire surface that remains in contactwith the pavement is minimal at best.

What is the best way to solve the problem? Good question, but you can betthat there will be no postponing the nearly sold-out events to giveconstruction crews the opportunity to make modifications. The low costsolution was suggested in the Star-Telegram interview with Lazier on2/19. "When you go racing, I think it'd be good to have a yellow line orsomething very decisive there," he said. "So when everybody is coveredwith oil, it's very clear where that line is. Because you're going towreck some cars if somebody gets down there."

Personally, when I think of the design process to build a facility thatwill be hosting 1,400 to 3,400 pound projectiles approaching a velocityof 200mph, physics would be one of my primary concerns. And I've neverknown physics to be a purely public relations thing.