NASCAR alters backstretch chicane on Daytona Road Course

Repeatedly during last week’s Busch Clash exhibition race on the road course, dirt and grass were sprayed on the track and onto other cars when cars cut the corners on the backstretch chicane.

To help reduce those incidents, NASCAR has now added rumble strips in front of the “turtle curbing” to the Turn 9 and Turn 10 chicane on the backstretch.

The rumble strips are the same as those used already on the frontstretch chicane. The one to the driver’s right on entry is approximately 36 feet long, and the other is approximately 30 feet long.

Following the Clash, several Cup Series drivers approached NASCAR about various ideas to address the problem.

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“What happens is you get behind somebody real close, and you go in there and you can’t see where you are going, so if they get into the mud, you follow them and if there is four cars in line, everybody’s trying to cut the chicane a little tighter, a little tighter and it just blows mud everywhere,” driver Martin Truex Jr. said after the race.

“We’ve got to figure that out a little bit, but outside of that – the track is a blast.”

Concrete backdrop on the Daytona Road

Photo by: NASCAR Media

Chase Elliott won the inaugural race on the Daytona Road Course last season and is going for his third consecutive road course victory in Sunday’s race. He will start on the pole with Daytona 500 winner Michael McDowell also starting on the front row.

“It looked like a good fix to me in short order,” said Elliott’s crew chief, Alan Gustafson. “Should be good.

“I don’t really have any issues with guys straightening that bus stop. That’s their job. That’s what they’re supposed to do. Just the dirt was a problem.”

On Friday morning, NASCAR announced it had also added a temporary Musco light to the course, positioned on the backstretch just about in the center between the entrance and exit of the chicane. The additional lighting was also based on driver feedback from last week's Busch Clash, which was run at night.