The concrete patches are placed where the track 'wears' the most. The cars are cornering hard and placing more force on the track. Concrete is more durable than asphalt. So it also turns out that the concrete patches are a pretty good first order approximation of the correct line through that section of track! Usually.
The 'alligators' are extreme curbs or rumble strips. Curbs serve essentially the same pupose as in your neighborhood; they accentuate the separation between the street/track and the not-track. Encourages the driver to stay within the bounds of the track and not take extreme shortcuts (or excursions as the case may be). Alligators, like rumble strips, are a stronger encouragement to NOT drive on that section. Yet, if necessary the car can still safely go over that part.
I have not been on the track yet, since last year, but I think the only place Summit has alligators is the exit of 10, driver left. You may be referring to the red/white curbs at Summit. Those are painted on, visual enhancement only.
A good example of a track with SERIOUS allegators is CMP. There are some low speed corners there and because they are slow the driver might not take the track edges as seriously as they might. So, there are some allegators there that will shake the glass right out of the doors.
Watching the races, and sometimes DE, cars are seen running on the curbs. I would bet you saw lots of cars on the curbing driver left in the carousel (6 to 7) at Summit Point. I always teach my students to stay off the curbs as they represent part of our safety net. In "the unlikely event" of a misjudgement the curb presents some extra room we weren't planning on using in which to recover. Not to mention, it's hard on the car.
So, did I get it right guys?
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