NASCAR’s longest running weekly race track is about to begin its 73^rd season of racing. Throughout those 72 years leading up to now, Bowman Gray Stadium has earned itself a fierce reputation. The little bullring in Winston-Salem, North Carolina is known for its rough style of racing and the controversy that follows. But now there’s some controversy already brewing, and an official green flag has yet to wave.

Recently, Winston-Salem earmarked $9 million for improvements to the city owned facility where Winston-Salem State University also plays football every fall. New concession buildings and restrooms were part of that, but so was a repave for the old quarter-mile ribbon of asphalt that had been there since 1993.

That repave was completed in late fall, and recently the drivers and teams got to take to the new pavement for the first time over the course of a few test days. After talking to a handful of drivers, reactions to the new surface are mixed at best.

“Well, they’ve absolutely ruined it,” said Jason Myers.

“My true thoughts are they need to take a bulldozer today and dig it up and repave it before we race on it six months from now or a year from now after it’s cured, because it’s that bad,” added 11-time champion Tim Brown.

Bowman Gray Stadium has never been a beacon of side-by-side racing within the short track community, but it was possible for a few laps after a restart. Drivers feel that the ability to do that is now completely gone, which often seems to be the case after a track is resurfaced.

“There is no outside. Period,” said Brown. “The wrecker can outrun us on the inside if we’re on the outside. That’s how bad the outside. It’s going to be single file.”

“The inside is getting some rubber down, but on the outside there’s absolutely nothing,” said 10-time champion Burt Myers.

In addition to the lack of grip in the outside lane, Burt Myers said grip is lacking all over the place, which will present a big challenge.

“There’s just no grip in the corner, through the corners, or down the straightaway,” Burt said. “Now, that being said, I think once we’ve run a few races and the track starts taking some rubber that’s going to change. But for right now, it’s going to be very interesting because it’s slick.”

On top of the lack of grip, the drivers explained that there’s some new bumps and dips that have developed on entry to both corners. Getting your car to work well through the bumps is now going to be one of the most important aspects of getting around Bowman Gray Stadium.

“The more run on it, it’s going to get more grip, but it’s not going to fix the humps getting into the corner,” said Jason Myers. “Those are still going to be there. And that’s the biggest thing we’re all fighting right now is the track’s not smooth. It just has a big hump in it.

“I heard rumors about what had happened, but I don’t do asphalt, so I don’t really know. I heard they left the equipment sitting there while they went to get another truck of asphalt, and the equipment just settled the asphalt that much further down. But it seemed to be right at the same place on both ends as you get into turn one and turn three.”

Jason Myers added that he wouldn’t be surprised if some of this was done on purpose to try to spice things up.

“I don’t put it past Gray Garrison (longtime Bowman Gray Stadium promoter) to have done it on purpose,” Myers said with a laugh. “I’ve been racing over there a long time. I know how this game works.”

All three drivers agree that the lack of grip in the outside lane has the chance to cause drivers to use the chrome horn even more than normal. And considering Bowman Gray is already known for its style of full-contact racing and hot tempers, there’s the potential to see some fireworks every Saturday night.

“If a guy misses the corner by six inches and slides up and you knock him out of the way, guess what, if he gets back in line behind you then he’ll run you down and knock you into the fence,” said Brown. “It’s going to be challenging. It’s going to be a mental challenge for all of us to really handle it.”

“Your first goal if a guy in front of you is slower is to pass the guy, obviously,” said Jason Myers. “You don’t just want to move a guy out of the way, but I think the race track is going to force us to start moving cars out of the way.”

Brown said that qualifying on Friday night is going to be extremely important, because he believes starting up front is even more important than it already always has been. But Jason said he won’t let that keep him from getting to the front of the field.

“I’m not going to finish behind somebody just because the race track is screwed up,” Myers said. “That’s why I say I don’t put it past Gray Garrison to have done this on purpose.”

Race fans can watch the entire season of racing from the legendary Bowman Gray Stadium, beginning this Saturday night, live on FloRacing.