North Carolina's zMax Dragway almost ready to make history.
Bruton Smith is long revered as a cutting edge track owner in both NASCAR and NHRA. His tracks are top of the line facilities and the success shows it. Bruton has touted his accomplishments in drag racing with The Strip at Las Vegas as well as Bristol. His latest venture is zMax Dragway in North Carolina. The drag strip is situated on the edge of the property of Lowe's Motor Speedway, also owned by Bruton's SMI Corporation. It is one of NASCAR's most popular races.
The zMax Dragway is unique in many ways from the luxury boxes to the facility layout and equipment. Perhaps the most talked about feature is Bruton's idea to have four lanes! Not since the '60s has a sanctioned track run four-wide. The idea is not to run four cars against each other but rather run two drag strips concurrently and get through an event twice as fast. Another benefit would be to keep one pair of lanes as a back up in case of an oil down. Crews can clean up the track while the racing continues.
While some debate its usefulness during a NHRA National Event, after all what pro team would want to run on a track that has been cold for a few hours? I think it would work great to move through the sportsman ranks quicker, thus helping the NHRA keep their precious Pro ranks on-time and running at scheduled times. The fan might not see it since NHRA is pretty good at running its Pro classes at the appropriate time slots, but I am sure the Race Director's job would be a bit easier.
I also dig the idea for Test and Tune nights, I know at my home track, Englishtown, the TnT nights are insane with the volume of cars. It would be awesome to run through them twice as quick and get everyone another run or two before closing time.
The facility is scheduled to open in September.