Track Trivia: Texas Motor Speedway

Because cars are bunched up on the smaller tracks, wrecks and the attendant yellow flags tend to happen more frequently. That's one reason the short track races are not usually my favorite to watch, because I think it just slows down the action too much. But the last two races may have changed my mind a little, and now I'm hoping we don't go to the bigger tracks and have races where there's less contact but way too much single-lane, follow-the-leader racing. 

Texas Motor Speedway, north of Fort Worth, is a 1.5 mile quad-oval with 24 degrees of banking in the turns and 5 degrees on the straightaways. It's a newer track, completed in 1996, and holds 159,585 screaming fans in the stands. (Counts vary by who you ask and how you define "seat". I think this number means available tickets to sell for a permanently-positioned place to put your butt.)

The race Sunday will be 501 miles, or 334 laps. Carl Edwards is the defending race champion, and I do have him on my fantasy team despite my aversion for picking drivers who won the last race, or the last running of the same race. Tony might look a little more natural in victory lane sporting the black cowboy hat wielding six-shooters, though.