Atlanta Motor Speedway

Atlanta Motor Speedway
1960–1990: Atlanta International Raceway

Address: 1500 Tara Place Hampton, Georgia, 30228
Hampton , Georgia , USA
Route type:	permanent race track
Owner:	Speedway Motorsports, Inc.
Operator:	Speedway Motorsports, Inc.
Architect:	Dr. Warren Gremmel, Bill Boyd, Jack Black, Garland Bagley
Building-costs:	1.8 billion US dollars
Start of building:	1958
Opening:	July 31, 1960
Speedway oval
Quad oval
Route data
Important events:	Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 NASCAR Xfinity Series Rinnai 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Active Pest Control 200
Route length:	2.48  km (1.54  mi )
Curve superelevation:	Curves: 24 °, straight lines: 5 °
Audience capacity:	124,000
http://www.atlantamotorspeedway.com

Coordinates: 33 ° 22 ′ 59 ″  N , 84 ° 19 ′ 5 ″  W.

Atlanta Motor Speedway 2004

Atlanta Motor Speedway before a race, 2009

The Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway ) is a speedway in Hampton , Georgia , about 32 km south of Atlanta . It is a 1.54 mile (2.48 km) long quad oval with a spectator capacity of over 125,000.

history

The circuit opened in 1960 as a standard 1.5 mile oval course. On October 23, 1990, Speedway Motorsports bought the Speedway. Associated with this was the renaming of Atlanta International Raceway to Atlanta Motor Speedway. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built above the northeast side of the route.

In 1997 a complete renovation took place in order to adapt the speedway to the standard of the other two 1.5 mile ovals from Speedway Motorsports . The start and finish straight was swapped for the back straight and the layout changed from a simple oval to a quad oval. Since this change, the Atlanta Motor Speedway has been one of the fastest tracks in the NASCAR series. In addition to this main racetrack, there are other track configurations on the layout. These include a 0.25-mile long oval between the start and finish straight and the pit lane, as well as a 2.5-mile (approx. 4 km) long road circuit that has been approved by the FIA . Apart from motorsport events, the Countryfest took place on the Speedway in 1994, to which over 200,000 spectators appeared.

For most of the 1990s and the early years of the 21st century, the Atlanta Motor Speedway recorded the highest speeds in a NASCAR race. The average speed per lap was about 193 mph (about 311 km / h), the lap record was over 197 mph (about 317 km / h). Similar and only slightly faster times were only achieved on the Texas Motor Speedway in 2004 and 2005. With the wear and tear of the track surface in Texas, the Atlanta Motor Speedway is slightly ahead in terms of speeds. With the Talladega Superspeedway and the Daytona International Speedway, there are two race tracks in the NASCAR series that are longer and therefore theoretically allow higher speeds of over 200 mph (about 322 km / h). With the introduction of air restrictors for these two routes in 1988, the speed was reduced to an average of 190 mph (about 306 km / h). Because of this, the Atlanta Motor Speedway's slogan came about: “Real Racing. Real Fast. "

In early September 2004, the Atlanta Motor Speedway was used for an unusual purpose. It served as an emergency shelter for the evacuated population before Hurricane Frances . However, since the facilities inside were not available, the evacuees had to persevere in their vehicles.

Towards the evening of July 6, 2005, the speedway suffered severe damage from a tornado of magnitude F2 on the Fujita scale , which developed from Hurricane Cindy . Roofs and facade elements detached themselves from the buildings and the debris that the tornado brought with it collected on the route. The following day, winds between 195 and 240 km / h swept over the Atlanta Motor Speedway, where a 15 m high display tower buckled. In addition, many street lights and some of the condominiums were damaged. The grandstands on the back straight, which were the original grandstands from 1960, were completely destroyed. The lost seats were replaced by a new grandstand on the start and finish straight with 13,000 seats. The total damage caused was put at around 40 to 50 million US dollars .

Atlanta Motor Speedway is equipped with night race lighting installed for the Indy Racing League races between 1998 and 2001. In 2003, qualifying for the Bass Pro Shops 500 race took place in the dark, before the qualifying sessions for both NASCAR races were postponed to the evening hours. In 2006, the Bass Pro Shop 500 was launched for the first time so that the finale took place under floodlights.

Course records

Original configuration (1,522 miles)

record	date	driver	Lap time	Average speed
NASCAR
Qualifying	March 8, 1997	Robby Gordon	29,378	186.507mi / h (300.153 km / h)
run	November 12, 1995	Dale Earnhardt	3:03:03	163.633mi / h (263.341 km / h)
CART
Qualifying	April 16, 1983	Rick Mears	26,732	204.963mi / h (329.855 km / h)
run	September 30, 1979	Rick Mears	0:50:09	182.094mi / h (293.051 km / h)
Source: Racing-Reference.info

Quad oval (1.54 miles)

record	date	driver	Lap time	Average speed
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Qualifying	November 15, 1997	Geoffrey Bodine	28,074	197.478mi / h (317.809 km / h)
run	March 14, 2004	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	3:09:15	158.679mi / h (255.368 km / h)
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Qualifying	October 25, 2003	Greg Biffle	28,830	192,300mi / h (309,476 km / h)
run	February 28, 2015	Kevin Harvick	1:40:32	149.813mi / h (241.1 km / h)
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Qualifying	March 17, 2005	Rick Crawford	30,339	182.735mi / h (294.083 km / h)
run	March 18, 2005	Ron Hornaday	1:27:35	142.424mi / h (229.209 km / h)
IndyCar Series
Qualifying	August 28, 1998	Billy Boat	24,734	224.145mi / h (360.726 km / h)
run	July 15, 2000	Greg Ray	2:02:01	153.403mi / h (246.878 km / h)
Source: Racing-Reference.info

Previous winners

season	date	Name of the race	winner	chassis	engine
USAC Championship Car
1965	August 1st	Atlanta 250	Johnny Rutherford	Watson	ford
1966	June 26th	Atlanta 300	Mario Andretti	Brawner Hawk	ford
1978	July 23	Gould Twin Dixie	Rick Mears	Penske	Cosworth
CART Champ Car
1979	April 22	Gould Twin Dixie 125 # 1	Johnny Rutherford	McLaren	Cosworth
1979	April 22	Gould Twin Dixie 125 # 2	Johnny Rutherford	McLaren	Cosworth
1979	30. September	Rich's Atlanta Classic	Rick Mears	Penske	Cosworth
1981	June 21st	Kraco Twin 125 # 1	Rick Mears	Penske	Cosworth
1981	June 21st	Kraco Twin 125 # 2	Rick Mears	Penske	Cosworth
1982	1st of May	Straw's 200	Rick Mears	Penske	Cosworth
1983	17th April	Kraco Dixie 200	Gordon Johncock	Wildcat	Cosworth
IRL IndyCar Series
1998	29th August	MCI Atlanta 500 Classic	Kenny Bräck	Dallara	Oldsmobile
1999	17th July	Kobalt Mechanics Tools 500 Presented by MCI WorldCom	Scott Sharp	Dallara	Oldsmobile
2000	15th of July	Midas 500 Classic	Greg Ray	Dallara	Oldsmobile
2001	April 28	zMax 500	Greg Ray	Dallara	Oldsmobile

Web links

• Official website
• Atlanta Motor Speedway on NASCAR.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Race Results at Atlanta Motor Speedway . racing-reference.info. Retrieved November 27, 2010.