CONCORD, N.C. – What would it take to put a racing legend behind the wheel on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s new road course?
For Mario Andretti, it was fulfilling a simple request: A high-performance car with a highly limited production run.
Fortunately, Speedway Motorsports Inc. CEO Marcus Smith’s family is in the business of selling cars as well as racing them, so procuring a 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid was easier than it might have been for many.
“My brother happened to have one,” Smith said on this week’s episode of the NASCAR on NBC Podcast. “Listen, that is crazy. I haven’t driven that car. I’m afraid to drive that car. It’s a $1 million car. They only made 918 of them.
“I said, ‘I’m not driving but I’ll check.’ My brothers both said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it. Mario!’ ”
Andretti, a veteran of famous road courses around the world as a 1978 Formula One champion (as well as a winner of the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500, the only driver to capture all three), toured the Roval in a March 2017 session. According to the track, Andretti reached a top speed at 177 mph in the 887-horsepower car.
“My brother David rode along with Mario which was extremely brave and crazy at the same time,” Smith said. “David made the mistake of asking Mario not to push too hard, which he did the opposite. This is just a super car. Before he drove it, Mario said, ‘I’ll drive it and give you feedback. If I like it, I’ll tell everybody else. If I don’t, I won’t tell anybody but you.’”
The track earned a seal of approval from Andretti, who told Smith the course was much better than he’d anticipated (“he was really surprised by the elevation changes and the camber in the turns”) and also offered two pieces of advice:
–An enhanced infield camping area because “that’s what all the great road courses in Europe have. An area where all the fans are right in the middle, and it makes it a lot more fun,” Smith said Andretti told him. The track has added pedestrian walkover bridges to provide more vantage points on the 17-turn, 2.28-mile layout.
–A chicane on the backstretch to reduce speeds. That was added after Cup drivers confirmed Andretti’s suggestion in other test sessions last year. “Mario said, ‘You’re going too fast,’” Smith said. “I said, ‘You sound like a driver!’ He said, ‘No, you need that chicane.’ That was in my mind.
“And we came back from testing and they said if we don’t have a chicane, we’ll make the tires so hard that it won’t be good on the infield road course, which may not be the best choice. We added the chicane, which works out fine, allows more competitive passing and you get another passing point on the track.”
During the podcast, Smith also discusses:
–The origins of moving the fall race at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s 1.5-mile oval to a road course;
–his reactions to Cup drivers feeling daunted by the layout;
–why he believes road courses are the new short tracks.
To listen to the NASCAR on NBC Podcast, click on the embed above, or you can download the episodes at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts.
