Drivers attending this weekend’s National 100 at East Alabama Motor Speedway will be greeted by a new surface and redefined layout at the 3/8-mile Phenix City oval.

Promoters are hopeful the work done over the past three weeks will somewhat slow down lap times to improve side-by-side racing and allow for multigroove racing during a three-day weekend that includes Friday’s $10,000-to-win Super Late Model opener and Saturday’s $25,000-to-win finale.

The track hired Opelika, Ala.-based Evergreen Siteworks to help with the project that brought in more than 180 truckloads of clay from a site an hour north near Alexander City, Ala. The firm also used modern methods to get a better baseline on the layout of the track that had previously been manicured with “human-operated tractor and with the human eye,” operations manager Dalton Antley said.

“Over the years we've taken feedback from drivers about certain dishes or bowls or grooves that just become too dominant and doesn't really allow for the best racing all night long,” Antley said. “So we had it surveyed from a professional dirtworks company we have here in town, we partnered with them on some geothermal testing and surveying with their big fancy drone. They came out and pulled points and showed us where the imperfections were. So we were able to grade down and get a perfect surface top to bottom.”

The track will maintain its 18-degree banking at the apex of the corners with the symmetrical entrances and exits. In an overhead view of the track after the project’s completion and before practice to test the service, the track had a decidedly gray look to it, not unlike Senoia (Ga.) Raceway and Modoc (S.C.) Raceway, which underwent resurfacing projects in previous years.

"I know everyone likes to throw around the gumbo word, but that's not what we're calling it. So just a clay material and as it gets worked in, I think it's gonna be a little more red than everyone anticipated it being. It’s not gonna be a Modoc or a Senoia or anything like that,” Antley said. "It will slow things down a little bit, but at the same time, we're hoping it puts on some much better racing throughout a long night and a long weekend, which we tend to have those out here.”

The Tim Thomason and Chris White-owned track knows that making a big change ahead of its biggest event shows moxie, but Antley said the team is confident it’s for the best. Feedback from practice was positive.

“It is a project close to a big event, so you know folks are right to have that hangup, but we expressed that to this company that we partnered with and the size and scale of projects they've worked on in the past and how quickly they've had to turn around their work days that we wouldn't (have to) worry about it,” Antley said. “We told them we're gonna worry about it until we see it, so we'll be asking a million questions. They've been great to work with.

“They've held our hand along the way and explained everything to us like we were 5-year-olds and told us whenever we get ready for track prep and this type of weather scenario, that type of weather scenario, what to do and what to look for.”

The prime goal is “to make something racier where guys can just enter or exit wherever they want and maybe move a line around throughout the night,” Antley said. “Whereas before — and part of it had to do with kind of the shape and the dish or the bowl that was developed, in (turn) three and four especially was bad — but both turns kind of had a little groove where unless you went out there and got creative with the water truck, it was just gonna find that groove throughout the night and become kind of dominant.”

The track also plans to announce plans this weekend or improvements for the National 100 next season, potentially connecting the traditionally independent race with a series.

“We're looking to get the event back where it should be,” Antley said, “right back where it was in its heyday.”