The complexities of racing an oval: it’s more than just turning left
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Alanis King, Racing columnist
Most people think of NASCAR as one thing: “Just a bunch of left turns.” But NASCAR is so much more than that — it’s a 200-mph test of skill, speed, endurance, and rule-bending.
To put that effort into words, ESPN went to Texas Motor Speedway with one question for competitors: “What do you say when people reduce your job to ‘left turns’?”
“Oval racing is managing tiny, minute differences that have huge effects,” Parker Kligerman, who drives the Big Machine Racing No. 48 car in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, told ESPN. “You’re always changing. You’re always thinking about doing something different. Sometimes it doesn’t work, and you’ve got to readjust and make up for that.”
Texas Motor Speedway is a 1.5-mile asphalt oval outside of Fort Worth, with 20-degree banking in the first two turns, 24-degree banking in the last two, and 5-degree banking on the straightaways. All three NASCAR national series were in Texas when we went: the third-tier Trucks, second-tier Xfinity Series, and top-level Cup Series.
Kligerman qualified 16th for Xfinity at Texas, and he wasn’t impressed. One mistake sealed his fate, because the competition is too tight for mistakes.
“I’d say [NASCAR] is one of the most dynamic forms of motorsport in the world,” Kligarman said. “If you look at the Cup Series, the difference from first to 30th might be three-tenths of a second. It’s nothing.
“I screwed up by under-driving it into turn one. From the entry to the center of turn one, I lost three-tenths. I carried that all the way back around, and it killed me. The amount of distance I lost that in was probably 100 feet or less.”
In shape alone, road courses — the style of circuit Formula One is known for, with left and right turns — look more complicated than ovals. But road courses often have a clear path to run, known as the “racing line.” In perfect weather conditions, that often involves a wide entry to each corner, hitting the apex near the inside curbing, then running out wide to carry the most speed through the turn.
On some ovals, drivers can run all over: the low line, the middle, or even ripping the wall. Often, that changes as the race goes on.
“Road-course racing is very formulaic,” Kligerman said. “You hit point by point by point, and you adjust those points as tires fall off, brakes, et cetera. Oval racing is constantly changing. You’re constantly evaluating what your car is doing: how to move around, how to find more grip. The difference in grip might be five feet higher in the center of the corner in turn one, so at 195 miles per hour with a bunch of cars around you, you’re going to say: ‘OK, I need to be five feet higher. That’s going to allow me to rotate just a tick more, get back to the throttle about a foot earlier, and that’s going to be a faster lap time.’
“Every time you enter a corner, if you do the same thing twice in a row, you’re going backwards.”
Kligerman has three victories in NASCAR’s top-three national divisions, all in the Truck Series. He had speed at Texas but finished 25th due to a loose wheel — showing how even if a driver has a good day, things out of their control can ruin it.
“The races I’ve won, the car is important,” Kligerman said. “Execution. Being super aggressive on restarts. The ability to be super dynamic with where you run, how you adjust, how you make the car better, and what you decide to do. Lap after lap. Corner after corner.
“Restarts are the largest opportunity, aside from the pits, to make the easiest passes. Once we all start going and we’re running in a line, the cars equalize across the board. Making up time gets harder and harder, so on a restart, when you get us all bunched up and you can shoot to the inside and make three positions — that is like gold.”
But oval racing is about more than just you; it’s also about the drivers around you. Tommy Joe Martins, former Xfinity regular and current team owner at Alpha Prime Racing, said NASCAR races have “a lot of different strategies going on at any different time.”
“You’re racing really fast, you’re racing really close to a whole lot of cars, and you’re put in a lot of situations where everyone around you is going to be really aggressive,” Martins told ESPN. “I think [the strategy] gets lost, at times, for some of the people who are new to NASCAR racing.
“We’re running different tires, different track positions — people who are faster, slower. That’s all kind of mixed together, so there’s a lot of danger around every corner. You’re driving a car that’s trying to wreck every lap, especially at a place like Texas. You’re never comfortable.”
NASCAR doesn’t have “different tires” in the way some other series do. There’s usually only one dry-weather compound, but teams can run “stickers” (new tires) or “scuffs” (ones that are lightly used). Martins’ team has yet another kind of tire: ones they buy at a discount.
While Kligerman and Big Machine Racing run a mid-tier budget in Xfinity, Martins and Alpha Prime are a lower-budget operation. A new set of four tires costs Martins about $2,500, and for the Texas race, NASCAR allowed Xfinity teams a maximum of six sets (totaling $15,000 per car). Tire sets often don’t transfer to other events, so teams use them or lose them.
Alpha Prime will often buy a few sets, then wait. If other cars wreck, Martins can buy their extras and save about $1,200 per set.
“There are disadvantages to this,” Martins said. “For teams that just want to show up and buy an entire allotment, they know exactly the size, runout, and spring rate on each of the tires. The more you buy, the more that you can kind of group those up and say: ‘These are going to be my best set of left-side tires. These are going to be my best set of right-side tires.’
“We’re buying them off of a Truck team or a team that fell out of the race, so we’re kind of just taking four tires and throwing them on the car. But financially, it’s a big advantage.”
Martins’ drivers also have to watch those around them. A good day for Alpha Prime is a top-15 or top-20, but they’re racing cars with higher budgets — and drivers who are less afraid to wreck for a good finish.
“The consequences are different for different teams,” Martins said. “For us, we’re in a position where our backup car really isn’t much of a car. It’s going to involve a lot of work to get it ready, and our drivers have to be hyper-aware of that. There are risks in practice or qualifying that they probably can’t take, whereas some other drivers can be more aggressive. You just have to count on your drivers being smart enough to understand the situation they’re in.”
Discomfort is a theme in NASCAR, whether it comes from the car itself or the risks around it. But in Kligerman’s notes for Texas Motor Speedway, he wrote: “You have to be comfortable in the uncomfortable.”
“That’s oval racing to a T,” Klilgerman said. “You have to just be OK that at 195 miles per hour, that the car is going to wiggle around. It’s going to move, and it’s going to feel really unsettling. And you’ve just got to tell yourself that’s OK.
“If you do that better than anyone else, you should be able to win.”
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Dan Wetzel
As victims go, Lane Kiffin doesn’t seem like one.
He could have stayed at Ole Miss, made over $10 million a year, led his 11-1 team into a home playoff game and become an icon at a place where he supposedly found personal tranquility. Or he could’ve left for LSU to make over $10 million a year leading a program that has won three national titles this century.
Fortunate would be one description of such a fork in life’s road. The result of endless work and talent would be another.
But apparently no one knows a man’s burdens until they’ve walked a mile in his hot yoga pants.
Per his resignation statement on social media, it was spiritual, familial and mentor guidance that led Kiffin to go to LSU, not all those five-star recruits in New Orleans.
“After a lot of prayer and time spent with family, I made the difficult decision to accept the head coaching position at LSU,” he wrote.
In an interview with ESPN’s Marty Smith, Kiffin noted “my heart was [at Ole Miss], but I talked to some mentors, Coach [Pete] Carroll, Coach [Nick] Saban. Especially when Coach Carroll said, ‘Your dad would tell you to go. Take the shot.'” Kiffin later added: “I talked to God, and he told me it’s time to take a new step.”
After following everyone else’s advice, Kiffin discovered those mean folks at Ole Miss wouldn’t let him keep coaching the Rebels through the College Football Playoff on account of the fact Kiffin was now, you know, the coach of rival LSU.
Apparently quitting means different things to different people. Shame on Ole Miss for having some self-esteem.
“I was hoping to complete a historic six-season run … ,” Kiffin said. “My request to do so was denied by [Rebels athletic director] Keith Carter despite the team also asking him to allow me to keep coaching them so they could better maintain their high level of performance.”
Well, if he hoped enough, Kiffin could have just stayed and done it. He didn’t. Trying to paint this as an Ole Miss decision, not a Lane Kiffin decision, is absurd. You are either in or you are out.
Leaving was Kiffin’s right, of course. He chose what he believes are greener pastures. It might work out; LSU, despite its political dysfunction, is a great place to coach ball.
Kiffin should have just put out a statement saying his dream is to win a national title, and as good as Ole Miss has become, he thinks his chance to do it is so much better at LSU that it was worth giving up on his current players, who formed his best and, really, first nationally relevant team.
At least it would be his honest opinion.
Lately, 50-year-old Kiffin has done all he can to paint himself as a more mature version of a once immature person. In the end, though, he is who he is. That includes traits that make him a very talented football coach. He is unique.
He might never live down being known as the coach who bailed on a title contender. It’s his life, though. It’s his reputation.
One of college sports’ original sins was turning playcallers into life-changers. Yeah, that can happen, boys can become men. A coach’s job is to win, though.
A great coach doesn’t have to be loyal or thoughtful or an example of how life should be lived.
This is the dichotomy of what you get when you hire Kiffin. He was on a heater in Oxford, winning in a way he never did with USC or Tennessee or the Oakland Raiders.
That seemingly should continue at resource-rich LSU. Along the way, you get a colorful circus, a wrestling character with a whistle, a high-wire act that could always break bad. It rarely ends well — from airport firings to near-riot-inducing resignations to an exasperated Nick Saban.
LSU should just embrace it — the good and the not so good. What’s more fun than being the villain? Kiffin might be a problem child, but he’s your problem child. It will probably get you a few more victories on Saturdays. He will certainly get you a few more laughs on social media.
It worked for Ole Miss, at least until it didn’t. Then the Rebels had to finally push him aside. This is Lane Kiffin. You can hardly trust him in the good times.
If anything, Carter had been too nice. He probably should have demanded Kiffin pledge his allegiance weeks back, after Kiffin’s family visited Gainesville, Florida, as well as Baton Rouge.
Instead, Kiffin hemmed and hawed and extended the soap opera, gaining leverage along the way.
Blame was thrown on the “calendar,” even though it was coaches such as Kiffin who created it. And leaving a championship contender is an individual choice that no one else is making.
Blame was put on Ole Miss, as if it should just accept desperate second-class hostage status. Better to promote defensive coordinator Pete Golding and try to win with the people who want to be there.
To Kiffin, the idea of winning is seemingly all that matters. Not necessarily winning, but the idea of winning. Potential playoff teams count for more than current ones. Tomorrow means more than today. Next is better than now.
Maybe that mindset is what got him here, got him all these incredible opportunities, including his new one at LSU, where he must believe he is going to win national title after national title.
So go do that, unapologetically. Own it. Own the decision. Own the quitting. Own the fallout. Everything is possible in Baton Rouge, just not the Victim Lane act.
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Kristen Shilton
Carter Hart is expected to make his debut for the Vegas Golden Knights against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday, sources confirmed a report from ESPN NHL analyst Kevin Weekes.
Hart, who last appeared in an NHL game two years ago with the Philadelphia Flyers, was recalled from the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights on Sunday in anticipation of his league-mandated suspension being lifted on Monday.
Hart — along with Dillon Dubé, Michael McLeod, Cale Foote and Alex Formenton — was put on an indefinite leave of absence by the NHL in January 2024 following sexual assault allegations after the 2018 Hockey Canada Foundation Gala.
The 27-year-old was never arrested but was charged with one count of sexual assault on Jan. 30, 2024. The trial began on April 22, 2025, in London, Ontario. All five men were eventually acquitted last summer, with a judge ruling prosecutors did not meet the onus to convict the defendants on any and all counts.
The NHL announced in September that those players would be eligible to sign with a new club on Oct. 15 and be reinstated on Dec. 1.
Hart is the only one who has agreed to an NHL deal. He signed a two-year, $4 million contract with Vegas in October and has been with the Silver Knights for the last month. Hart appeared in three AHL games, posting a 3.07 goals-against average and a .839 save percentage.
Foote was signed to an AHL contract by the Chicago Wolves — affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes — on Monday.
When Hart last suited up for the Flyers, on Jan. 20, 2024, he gave up five goals and was pulled after two periods in a 7-4 loss to Colorado. In 227 career games, all with Philadelphia, Hart has a 96-93-29 record with a 2.94 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage.
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