Know Your Track: Texas

Texas Motor Speedway

Track Name: Texas Motor Speedway

           

Nicknames: "The Great American Speedway"

Location: Fort Worth, Texas

Capacity: 181,655

Date of First Race: April 6, 1997

Layout: Texas Motor Speedway is a 1.5 mile asphalt "Quad-Oval" with 24 degrees of banking in all four turns and two "dog-legs" on the front stretch. TMS has a very similar layout when compared to Atlanta Motor Speedway, though differences arise in the age and wear of the asphalt surface.

Current Sprint Cup Races:

• April 11, 2015 - Duck Commander 500, a 500.5 mile, 334 lap regular season points race. This is a Saturday night event.
• November 8, 2015 - AAA Texas 500, a 500.5 mile, 334 lap Chase race. This is the eighth out of ten races in the Chase and the second out of three races in the Eliminator Round of the Chase.

Most Wins:      

• All-Time: Jimmie Johnson, 4 wins
• Active: Jimmie Johnson, 4 wins
• Latest Winner:
• 2014 Duck Commander 500: Joey Logano
• 2014 AAA Texas 500: Jimmie Johnson

Description: As proclaimed by manager and promoter Eddie Gossage, Texas Motor Speedway is known as the "Wild Asphalt Circus" (actually, there have been carnivals on race weekends). The racing at the track can be hit or miss in terms of its entertainment and excitement, but when it hits, it hits in a big way, even in qualifying. The track is one of the fastest non-restrictor plate tracks in NASCAR and, in 2008, poor Michael McDowell discovered what happens when you lose control of your car at such incredible speeds:

And with Texas holding a date for one of the final Chase "play-off" races, intensity boiled up to an all-time this past November and really emulated what Gossage meant in the phrase "Wild Asphalt Circus", courtesy of Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon:

In addition, Texas offers a pretty cool trophy to the winner of a race there and that is a pair of six-shooter pistols. The track is also home to the world's largest high-definition video screen that sits on the backstretch of the track and is named "Big Hoss". Pretty fitting.

Notable Races:

• 2000 DirecTV 500 - In just his 16th career Sprint Cup start, Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored his first career victory in the race at TMS. Earnhardt Jr. would soon become, and is still today, NASCAR's most popular driver.

Fun Facts: The speedway has attempted to steal the annual Texas-Oklahoma college football rivalry game to from the Cotton Bowl, but has not prevailed in doing so.