The General Manager of zMax Dragway is confident he is taking the right steps for NHRA race fans.

Christian Byrd has confirmed the track located in Concord, NC, has emailed those who purchased Sunday tickets for the Pep Boys NHRA Carolina Nationals extending both an apology and intent to honor their ticket purchase price toward any zMax Dragway event in 2015.

"It was an easy decision," Byrd admited. "Our customers are 100-percent of the lifeblood of what we do. The policy states fifty-percent, but we feel with what they endured, it was what we needed to do."

The General Manager of zMax Dragway is confident he is taking the right steps for NHRA race fans.

Christian Byrd has confirmed the track located in Concord, NC, has emailed those who purchased Sunday tickets for the Pep Boys NHRA Carolina Nationals extending both an apology and intent to honor their ticket purchase price toward any zMax Dragway event in 2015.

"It was an easy decision," Byrd admited. "Our customers are 100-percent of the lifeblood of what we do. The policy states fifty-percent, but we feel with what they endured, it was what we needed to do."

Fortunately or unfortunately, racing at the first event in the 2014 NHRA Countdown to the Championship was postponed and moved to this weekend's NHRA FallNationals outside of Dallas, Texas.

A combination of weather, track conditions and a press schedule led to the decision to complete the event as part of the qualifying session at the next scheduled event.

While the race moves on, the work at zMax Dragway will move forward to ensure the issue with the racing surface becomes an issue of the past.

Byrd said the facility is committed to diagnosing the issue which caused the traction issues.

"We are committed to discovering what is going on with the race track," Byrd said, confirming a three-hour meeting with track engineers.

Byrd the confirmed samples of the concrete are currently in analysis. Those results will direct the actions of the track.

"I don't think we want to react until we find out what is going on," Byrd said. "You don't want to repave the track until you find out what is going on. That doesn't solve anything. We need to determine if this is an issue of the aggregate we used; if there are chemical reactions causing bonding issues ... it's all speculative at this point. We won't know anything until the samples are fully analyzed."

Byrd confirmed the track is also doing further tests to determine what impact certain chemicals have on the track.

Overal, Byrd stated his team at zMax Dragway  is committed to ensuring Sunday's debacle doesn't happen again.

"We want to react in a way to correct this matter for the long term. These tracks are supposed to last 20 years, not seven years,” said Byrd. “We've got all of the powers-that-be and the right people engaged from Speedway Motorsports and we spent a lot of time in concert yesterday committed to fixing this. Coming out of the meetings we have a plan to combat the issues. We'll fix the issues once we have determined exactly what they are."

Fixing the racing surface may well be the easiest task. Fixing how the fans feel could well be the most demanding for both zMax and the NHRA.

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