All About Horse Power Motorsports 24/7
To be perfectly honest, this is not the Atlanta Motor Speedway this writer grew up with. Then again, the Atlanta that I originally grew up with I only saw run nine races before it got reworked to the 1.54-mile track it is now. Yet, this track is not the one I ultimately remember.
The Atlanta that everyone remembers, including the drivers, was worn in and abrasive. It would go from being full of grip, to an ice rink, and did so in a matter of minutes…as in a couple laps on new tires.
That surface wore in so much it began to crumble, and yet the drivers enjoyed it.
It meant the ones at the wheel had to saw, fight, and find a way to go around the track and in essence “tame” a track that was weathered in. It had become worn out just like Darlington did for several years, minus the talk that running ones hand across the surface would draw blood. But still, progression meant that change is inevitable, and in the end it meant a new surface needed put down.
Along with that new surface came a form of racing that normally is reserved for the biggest tracks on the circuit.
We are used to it at Daytona, and Talladega. One line may be faster, and then it’s blocked by the leader. One false move, and half the field suddenly is in the garage with torn up body panels and broken suspension parts. At the same time, we are used to seeing this style of racing at these tracks for going on 35 years. It was 1988 when the restrictor plate was first introduced, and despite the fact the plates are gone and replaced with a tapered intake, the racing and the anxiety is still the same.
That fear of seeing what happened to Rusty Wallace in 1993, or Bobby Labonte in 2001, ultimately remains as we have seen the new car get airborne and cause that same gasp and worry.
Now, take that anxiety, and cut one mile off the size of the track.
You now have the style of racing that this Atlanta Motor Speedway produces. Pack racing at this track is not exactly new. We saw a few years ago the sport used the All-Star Race as a test session in a sense for this package on the prior car, one that saw the restrictor plates on the intake for the first time at a speedway aside from Daytona and Talladega since the 2000 fall event at New Hampshire.
It worked well a year ago, and now it’s round three with this package at the fastest 1.5-mile track on the circuit.
We better dust off this race, but it is definitely critical to also dust off some anxiety that comes with the pack racing. Hopefully everyone still has fingernails at the end of this one.
