Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron has a say about the Charlotte Motor Speedway, and it is directly against Richard Petty's request. While Petty wanted to avoid repaving the old and historic track, Byron feels otherwise to make racing smoother.

Ahead of the Pocono Raceway Cup Series race on Sunday, June 14, Byron was asked to speak about the bumps NASCAR drivers experienced during the Coca-Cola 600. Sharing his thoughts on the Cup Scene on YouTube, Byron dropped his take on Charlotte.

"Charlotte is gotten pretty violent," he said. "I think there's been talks about maybe paving a section of the track that is the roughest. So yeah, Charlotte is borderline. I think it's getting too much."

The Charlotte Motor Speedway was last paved before the 2006 Cup Series season. Following this, the track went on to serve NASCAR for over two decades, and most recently, it hosted the Coca-Cola 600 in May.

"But it's getting to the point where it rattles your head pretty good and just having conversations with people the next couple days are rough after that," Byron further added. "So, I don't think that's good, especially for the length of that race. So, possible that we could do some stuff there to help that."

Over the last few years, NASCAR drivers have complained about the bumpy surface of the race track. The quad oval and the Roval have jarring issues, which hamper the drivers, as mentioned by William Byron.

However, Petty rejects the idea that Charlotte needs to be repaved.

Richard Petty Wants Charlotte to Be Left Out

While multiple drivers spoke against the bumpy surface of the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Petty thinks otherwise. Despite the calls to repave the track like Bristol, The King dropped his statement on the Petty Family Racing podcast with Dale Inman.

"No, I don’t think they need to repave it,” he stated. “It doesn’t make any difference how bumpy it is. Everybody’s got to run on the same circumstances. Just because you make it any smoother, who does that help, and why does that help? But brand new race tracks are really noted for being one groove race tracks.”

Besides William Byron, former NASCAR driver Martin Truex Jr., stated that racing at Charlotte meant getting concussions at every lap. Coming into 2026, Tyler Reddick also put this out.

What do you think of Byron's take on Charlotte? Let us know in the comments.

Read more at RFK Racing Digest.

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Soheli Tarafdar