Drivers race during the NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 21, 2021. Following the July 11 race at the facility, work will begin to add banking in the turns while narrowing the racing surface on the 1.5-mile raceway. Photo: HHP/Chris Owens
Atlanta Motor Speedway will have a new look beginning in 2022 – although you may not notice any changes on the surface.
Track officials announced on Tuesday that the track will be reprofiled to increase the banking at the 1.5-mile track located in Hampton, Georgia, along with narrowing the racing surface overall by 15 feet.
“As Atlanta’s racing surface has aged, we’ve challenged ourselves to reimagine what NASCAR racing at an intermediate track can be,” said Speedway Motorsports President and CEO Marcus Smith in a release on Tuesday. “With high banks in the turns, narrower width and new pavement technology, Atlanta will be unlike any other mile-and-a-half track on the circuit. It’s all new for ’22 and this will be specifically designed for close, competitive racing.”
Banking in the turns of the speedway will be increased to 28 degrees from its current 24 degrees. Meanwhile, the racing surface will be narrowed to 52 feet on the frontstretch, 42 feet on the backstretch and 40 feet in the corners.
The project comes in the midst of a series of changes around the NASCAR national touring series tracks. Three years ago, Charlotte Motor Speedway added an infield road course to the facility, which hosts the fall NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series races at the facility. This year, another SMI track, Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway, covered the concrete racing surface with dirt to play host to the first NASCAR Cup Series race on a dirt track since 1971.
Also this year, SMI moved one of its coveted NASCAR race weekends from Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, to the Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Texas.
The move also comes as plans are reportedly in the works to convert the NASCAR-owned 2-mile long Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California to a half-mile short track facility in the near future.
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It’s the latest step in the evolution of the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Originally named Atlanta International Raceway, the facility – located south of Atlanta – opened on July 31, 1960 as a 1.5-mile true oval, with short straightaways and long, sweeping corners. The inaugural race was won by NASCAR Hall of Famer Fireball Roberts over Cotton Owens in second and Georgia Racing Hall of Famer Jack Smith in third.
The track was purchased by SMI in 1990, and rechristened Atlanta Motor Speedway. In 1997, the speedway was given a major facelift, swapping the frontstretch and the backstretch and adding a “double dogleg” into the frontstretch to convert it from a true oval to a quad oval, matching SMI’s tracks in Charlotte and Texas.
The track will also see its first repave since the 1997 reconfiguring, something that has been put on hold for several years at the behest of drivers and fans.
“Our operations staff has done everything possible to extend the life of our racing surface, and as a result fans have enjoyed some historic moments and fantastic finishes at Atlanta,” said AMS Executive Vice President and General Manager Brandon Hutchison in Tuesday’s release. “While this asphalt cannot outlast Father Time, the memories of the great racing will last forever.”
Work on the reconfiguration will begin just after the upcoming NASCAR race weekend, with an aim to be ready for the first visit by NASCAR’s “Next Gen” race car in 2022.
For more information on the NASCAR race weekend, visit AtlantaMotorSpeedway.com.
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