How NASCAR Built an Asphalt Race Track in the L.A. Coliseum (Again!)

Once again, NASCAR has transformed the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, site of two Olympics, two Super Bowls, one World Series, the Rolling Stones and the Pope, into a short track.

Last year through the genius of NASCAR vice president of engineering services Martin Flugger, the Coliseum’s field was transformed into a half-mile paved oval with three lanes and 2.5 degrees of banking.

Work on this year’s track started Dec. 15 and went on “round the clock” (with a holiday break) until paving began Jan. 4. First, crews layed down 130,000 sq ft of plastic sheeting known as Visqueen on top of the stadium’s grass. Then came plywood, then 500 truckloads of dirt layered on at about four and a half feet deep, followed by 70 semis delivering 1560 tons of special asphalt. Finally, crews added concrete walls around the track softened on the inner surfaces by NASCAR’s SAFER barriers, and topped it all with 1400 feet of catch fencing.

“NASCAR came in and put in four or five feet of dirt, graded it and then poured asphalt right on top of that, so that went over right on top of the grass,” said the Coliseum’s general manager Mike Furin, still a little bit in awe of his facility’s transformation.

And how does the grass handle being smothered by all that dirt, plastic, plywood and asphalt? Will it be fine and spring right back to life?

“No,” Furin said. “The grass is dead.”

Don’t cry for me, grass.

“We’ll end up replacing it, but in our business that's nothing new.”

Depending on the season’s schedule, the Coliseum could put in a new lawn four or five times a year.

And is that new grass the sod stuff that you buy at the nursery, or do they plant seeds and grow grass like farmers?

“It’s sod. It's grown out in the desert and it's just basically trucked in. We need about a day and a half for that.”

Does this mean Furin is really good at growing grass?

“I can't do my own grass,” he said. “So you might want to get some more professional help.”