Thursday, March 30 The first two races in Texas saw a caution on Lap 1 in 1997 and then a caution on Lap 2 in 1998. Both wrecks took out 12 to 15 cars. Texas Motor Speedway is a fast track, but so far we really haven't seen it develop two grooves. Hopefully that will happen this weekend, which would make for better racing. The track itself has had a couple of problems, but the biggest being water seeping up through the track in center of the turns a few years ago. When they built the facility on this location, they didn't realize there was a natural spring under it. What they did prior to last year's race was redo the banking in the turns -- the way they transitioned into the straightaway. This also allowed them to adjust their drainage issue to get rid of the water. But the 1.5-mile tri-oval is an extremely fast track. I've been on record a number of times saying I don't understand why people insist on building this configuration of race track. Well, I know why they built them -- they do it for seating. But as far as what it provides for racing, I don't think it provides much. In addition to the track's banking, they've also changed the tire each time we've gone to Texas. This year, I think Goodyear has a much better handle on their tires. They've had an opportunity to do more testing there since the configuration changed. I think they'll have a better tire and I think the teams will have a much better understanding of what they have to do for their set-ups.

Three years ago, Texas Motor Speedway was added to the Winston Cup schedule. Last year, drivers finally stopped complaining about the 1.5-mile tri-oval.