A few days ago, Shane van Gisbergen warned drivers about the imminent danger from the bumps at San Diego. His words were consistent with NASCAR‘s official warning about the behavior of its newest track. While most drivers heeded the warnings, Hendrick Motorsports drivers Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson found unexpected reassurance in an unlikely comparison.

When confronted about his review of the newest racetrack, Elliott was rather positive about the condition of the tarmac.

“I mean, the bump in one is pretty dramatic. The dip thing you roll across in two is pretty big, but you are going slow right there. There are a couple kinds of bumps and those switchbacks. I haven’t looked at that; my numbers are a little messed up,” he said.

“But some of the faster switchbacks have some dips in them that are there. But there’s nothing that’s like a few years ago at Watkins Glen, before they cut the stop down. I mean, that was like a headache for a while type of situation. This isn’t anywhere close to that.”

The San Diego racetrack in question is far from a traditional racing venue. In fact, it is not even like the street circuits that are accustomed to regular traffic. For the sake of its event, NASCAR has had to make multiple changes throughout the circuit.

These include freshly paved asphalt, welding the sewer hole curbs, and adding curbs and concrete to help drivers navigate the track more easily. Pairing these with the fact that all the military activities have extensively used and worn the asphalt down gives drivers a unique challenge to conquer. They can’t simply rely on the track to remain the same lap after lap.

There are multiple videos online showing how this track tests drivers. Cars have gone airborne for seconds because of uneven asphalt. However, the comparison Elliott made in this case was not shabby either.

The curbing on the bus-stop section of Watkins Glen was a complete monster. It caused multiple crashes with high G-forces and sent the drivers spinning away into a frenzy. While drivers like Tyler Ankrum report that the San Diego bumps caused them to hit the wall, that is nowhere near as dangerous as the curbs in Glen. NASCAR literally needed to replace the curbs before the bus stop with rumble strips to prevent violent crashes for drivers.

This change happened in 2024, so we can safely say that Elliott lived through the worst of it. Still, with a bumpy and long track like San Diego, drivers wouldn’t expect less. So, exactly how are they preparing for it? It seems like the answer was pretty easy for them after all.

Kyle Larson thanks simulators for familiarizing himself with the track

Modern NASCAR does not allow practice sessions at most of the racetracks. It takes away the privilege drivers would love to have: to crash without consequences. Since they only get to hit the track during qualifying and race days, most drivers are wary of racing too hard.

But in the modern day, racing can also derive benefits from simulators and similar setups. It helps drivers clock crucial laps around the circuit without damaging their million-dollar cars and losing out on points.

We can safely say that they heavily depend on these simulators to get better at racing on these tracks. Take Kaden Honeycutt, for example, who had clocked in 400 laps to prepare himself for San Diego.

So it’s no wonder that Larson is rather confident about the track and understands it more than most, given the time he has spent on simulators driving around the circuit.

Speaking to Bob Pockrass from FOX, he said, “No, I felt like the sim and iRacing were visually pretty close after now, getting out there in real life. So that side helped. Yeah, the concrete sections are white. So that’s a little different—in somewhere like where the paint lines line up and stuff, it’s a little different, but other than that, it’s pretty cool.”

There is still some time until the Cup drivers hit the track. For now, the entire social media is buzzing with awe-inspiring images of trucks jumping the track as they try to go faster. However, the Cup cars will have an easier time because of their affinity for road courses.

The Next-Gen NASCAR was built to conquer road courses more effectively, and its skills should translate well into this new circuit.