The NASCAR Cup Series returns to the east coast for a race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The track will host this weekend’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, the sixth race of the 2021 season. For the first time since 2010, the Hampton, Georgia, track will also host a second race weekend in July. Read on for an overview and history of the track with the oldest surface on NASCAR’s circuit.
Check out our NASCAR Cup Series statistics article for updated driver stats through the first five races of the season!
Atlanta Motor Speedway Overview
Atlanta Motor Speedway opened in 1960 in Hampton, Georgia. The 1.54-mile track has hosted races every year since then and had two different NASCAR Cup Series race dates up until 2010. In 2011, the track lost its spring race to Kentucky Speedway with the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 moving up from the fall to the spring half of the annual schedule. 2021 sees Atlanta gain that second race back while Kentucky has fallen completely off the NASCAR schedule this year.
The track used to be a regular oval. That all changed after Speedway Motorsports bought layout back in 1990. Seven years later, they switched around both the front and backstretch and made the track into a quad-oval.
Atlanta Motor Speedway is NASCAR’s Oldest Surface
The 1997 renovation to Atlanta Motor Speedway were also significant in that it marks the last time that the track has been paved. 2021 marks NASCAR’s 25th season of racing on the current surface. It is the oldest surface of any current track on the series circuit.
As one can imagine, the lack of a recent paving spells doom for tires during races at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The tires on this track wear so badly that Fox Sports NASCAR analyst Larry McReynolds once took a cheese grater to a tire in a demonstration to help show just how much damage the track does to tires. Needless to say, Atlanta Motor Speedway is ready to produce another great race and the drivers are ready to try to handle it. Key word being “try”.
NASCAR Cup Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway | Weekend Racing Schedule
Fr8Auctions 200
Series: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Date: Saturday, March 13, 2021
Start Time: 2:30 P.M. EST
Coverage: FS1
Distance: 200 miles
Laps: 130
EchoPark 250
Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series
Date: Saturday, March 13, 2021
Start Time: 5:30 P.M. EST
Coverage: FS1
Distance: 250 miles
Laps: 200
Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Date: Sunday, March 14, 2021
Start Time: 3 P.M. EST
Coverage: FOX
Distance: 501 miles
Laps: 325
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