Michigan Int'l Speedway "will extend its pit wall by 150 feet toward Turn 4 in time for this weekend's NASCAR races after two cars had scary impacts on pit road at Pocono Raceway," according to Jeff Gluck of USA TODAY. The wall "will be a temporary barrier with attenuators protecting it." Additionally, MIS "has completed some previously announced safety improvements." The facility has "added 700 feet of SAFER barrier to pit walls at the entrance and exit of pit road and installed tire packs at the angled Turn 1 interior wall." MIS said that some of the grass at the exit of pit road "was also paved to serve as a skid pad." Following this weekend, MIS "will install 7,500 feet of SAFER barrier to the outside walls on the frontstretch and backstretch, as well as the exterior pit road wall in the infield grass" (USA TODAY, 8/11). MOTORSPORT.com's Jim Utter noted the pit wall upgrade at MIS comes "in part as a result of a trio of incidents which took place two weeks ago at Pocono Raceway, where three different drivers spun off the exit of Turn 3 and ended up slamming into a portion of the pit wall." The "most serious incident involved driver Kasey Kahne in the Sprint Cup Series race." He spun and struck the pit wall on lap 5 of the race, "hitting an area filled with team members and fans with pit road passes." No one "was injured" (MOTORSPORT.com, 8/10).
HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN: In Daytona Beach, Godwin Kelly noted the "heavy lifting" for the Daytona Rising project at Daytona Int'l Speedway "is done, so the rush is on to install seats and build-out the interior portions" of the $400M venue. The last of 40 escalators, which will "service the nearly mile-long, 101,000-seat grandstand area, was put in place recently and the concrete roof of the new tower area was completed last week." Since the July 4 Sprint Cup Series Coke Zero 400, crews "have added approximately 10,000 more seats to the structure as primary contractor Barton Malow races to meet its January completion deadline" (Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL, 8/10).
