Seldom has an eight-foot-wide stretch of asphalt been so anticipated and yet so delayed. But as preparations build for next month’s NASCAR race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, track officials have decided another year must pass without the apron, the proposed racing room below the white boundary line in each corner.
The reason: NASCAR officials want time to study the effects of changes made to the track. The Brickyard 400 is July 27. IMS had planned to begin apron installation June 9, the day after its vintage car weekend, but NASCAR thought that was too late.
“They asked if we could postpone (the project) so they could test it,” IMS president Doug Boles said Tuesday.
“We said, ‘That makes sense; we understand that.’ ” Boles said the heavy Indiana winter delayed several IMS projects, including the installation the asphalt sections totaling more than a mile in length.
With spring-like weather late to arrive, IMS officials didn’t want to risk the added surface not being ready for Indianapolis 500 activities in May.(Indianapolis Star)(
