I’ve been round racing all of my life. I obtained began in racing watching my uncle race on the brief tracks of East Tennessee within the 1970’s. It was a thrill to go see him race almost each week.
My first publicity to NASCAR racing was in 1975 at Atlanta. It was referred to as Atlanta Worldwide Raceway on the time. My dad’s finest good friend from highschool lived within the space and invited us to come back down. We made the journey and my eyes had been large open as I witnessed a giant 1.533-mile monitor, one thing a lot bigger than the 1/3-mile and 1/2-mile tracks I used to be used to. The speeds had been unbelievable. I used to be hooked.
I used to be in a position to go to Atlanta three extra occasions after that as I pestered my dad yearly to take me. Atlanta was my favourite monitor till I lastly made my first go to to Bristol. However Atlanta was an in depth second.
When Bruton Smith reconfigured the monitor for the autumn race in 1997, I used to be not a fan of the transfer. We already had Charlotte that had an analogous form. Atlanta was distinctive. However because the years went on and the asphalt started to put on, it was one in every of my favourite tracks to observe. Seeing the vehicles race prime or backside whereas sideways one thing I discovered near filth racing.
Two years in the past, Marcus Smith determined Atlanta wanted one thing totally different. Attendance has been poor on the monitor for the final 15 years. Smith got here up with the concept to extend the banking and make the monitor one other superspeedway – one other pack racing monitor like Daytona or Talladega.
I used to like the racing at Daytona and Talladega when the vehicles may get slightly extra unfold out. Over time, NASCAR used the principles to maintain all of the vehicles in tight packs. These races produced some thrilling finishes. However the different laps had been simply high-speed jockeying periods in anticipation of “The Large One”. I’m not a fan of that type of racing.
I took the racing on the new Atlanta Motor Speedway with a grain of salt. It was attention-grabbing to see. However the Subsequent Gen automotive has been so good on the 1.5-mile tracks I had hoped they’d follow the Atlanta of previous for a bit longer.
Because the asphalt begins to put on, I assumed the racing would possibly get a bit extra attention-grabbing. I watched with some anticipation, greater than I’ve the earlier 4 below this configuration. Was I shocked. The racing was unbelievable and the end was unbelievable. There gave the impression to be extra followers within the stands than current years. It seems followers are approving the brand new Atlanta.
The query that comes up in my thoughts is such a racing only a gimmick or actual racing? The a part of me that claims it’s a gimmick is it takes a particular guidelines bundle to maintain the vehicles shut with a purpose to produce quite a lot of passing and hopefully shut finishes like we noticed on Sunday. The a part of me that claims it’s actual racing is the vehicles can get slightly bit unfold out in contrast to Daytona or Talladega. There may be some ability concerned aside from holding it large open lap after lap.
No matter what anybody thinks, it seems to be like Atlanta Motor Speedway has hit on one thing. It is going to be attention-grabbing to see how ticket gross sales are for the second race, which occurs to be the primary race of the playoffs. This storyline shall be continued.
