Nazareth - World's Fastest (Talking) One-Mile Oval
By Jim Murphy

©1996 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.

With Paul Tracy's "record-breaking" qualification at Nazareth, claims of the "World's Fastest One-Mile Oval" bring to a head something that has been festering for a number of years.

Nazareth isn't a 1.0 mile track. In fact, it's much less. How much? Well, that has been a topic of some discussion for quite a while. I spoke with a team at Nazareth this weekend who shared with me that their data acquisition systems reports a lap at Nazareth as 4,900 feet long....in the groove. This would indicate a track length of slightly less. Doing the math, it comes in at around 0.92 miles.

Now, there's no shame in the course being shorter or longer than a mile. NHIS is 1.058 miles. The difference is that at NHIS, the speeds are calculated based on a track length of 1.058. At Nazareth, they use 1.0, which is about 8% off.

Just to put it all in perspective, Paul Tracy's record run of 18.824 mph would not actually be 190.737, but in fact is more likely 177.480 mph.

To be fair, some have tried to link this to a publicity war between CART and the IRL, but Phoenix and Nazareth have been swapping this distinction for years, well before there was even thought of the IRL. It's not that sinister.

Teams have been known to go some obscene distances without refueling at Nazareth. Last year, Jacques carried his car for the first 92 laps. One well-respected national motorsports journalist noticed this weekend that straightaway trap speeds at Nazareth were actually SLOWER than the average lap speed reports. If Nazareth is a mile, I have some land I'm willing to give you a deal on.

Distance measuring seems to be a black art. IndyCar claims to measure 10-feet up from the inside white line. NASCAR measures down from the outside wall (6 or 15 feet, I can't recall which). But BOTH series agree that Indianapolis is 2.5 miles and NHIS is 1.058 miles. Go figger.

I guess what really gets my dander up about this isn't that the distance is wrong. I'm sure many tracks are wrong. It's just that's it's WAY wrong, and that they have the nerve to run around making a huge PR deal out of the speeds.

Someone observed this weekend that they should take an Indy car down to Dover and turn a few laps. That should shut everyone up about this "Fastest One Mile Oval" nonesense.