Holes cut into Kansas Speedway to relieve water under the surface

Pressured water under the race track forced quick repair during the only NASCAR Cup Series practice session

Kansas Speedway has been hit with a very unique situation all morning. First heavy rains and lightning delayed the installation of the inspection tent. That created a line at the inspection tent ahead of practice.

The weather all rained out the morning truck series session. As a result, the schedule was condensed for the MENCS field. NASCAR made post-qualifying practice and pre-qualifying practice into a single session. The new 2.5 session is now the only session, it’s ahead of practice.

In addition to that, there was a new bump in turns 3-4. Multiple drivers were complaining as they all tore the splitters up. NASCAR elected to throw the yellow and do some track repairs, which you can see below.

Watch the video of the repair below.

Drivers comment on the Kansas Speedway bump

“That spot that they’re going to on the race track right now… That’s developed into a huge bump,” Kyle Busch said over the radio.

“It’s not a weeper, the race track’s coming up,” Kyle Busch’s crew responded.

Busch: “Oh! Copy that, 10-4.”

Crew: “Yeah it’s a big rough spot. Brad commented about it last run. It’s tearing splitters up.”

“Apparently it has something to do with water and we’re gonna take a really big saw to it. Maybe they need to get that #78 to get that saw out for the track?,” Joey Logano says with a laugh.

“It’s right where you run. It’s pretty much right where you go over on corner exit, every time. If you run the bottom lane. Even if you run the middle lane, you’re probably going to clip it with the left front,” Logano explained.

“The bump over there was definitely one of them,” Chase Elliott refers to problems with his race car via FS1.

NASCAR - Saw used for race track repair
NASCAR – Saw used for race track repair

It’s fixed… Maybe

NASCAR officials first took a drill to the situation. They drilled two holes in the turns 3-4 bump. Immediately water spewed out of the racing surface. Joey Logano’s jaw dropped as he saw that.

From there, they took out the big saw. They cut a whole from the beginning of lane 2 to the apron. That cut allowed all the water to escape from under the racing surface.

“There is a river running underneath this race track,” Jeff Gordon says with a laugh.

There were slight concerns that it might be a sink hole. Or that the ground under the racing surface had been washed away slightly.

Ryan Blaney was the first car on the track as they re-dropped the green flag. Everything is now good to go.

In total, the repairs took a little less than 25 minutes. Practice is still underway.

Kansas Speedway track repair

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Kansas Speedway | NASCAR

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