HAMPTON, Ga. – Before the driver’s meeting for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway, Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) Chairman Marcus Smith said the company will re-look at their plan to repave the 1.54-mile track.
Drivers in all three of NASCAR’s national series have made comments and pleas this weekend asking the track not to repave in order to protect the quality racing and action it currently creates.
“I want to sign all the drivers up to the ‘glue team’ to help glue the track back together,” Smith said. “It’s something that we’re definitely looking into. I love all the positive comments that we’ve gotten. We’re going to have to look into it.
“With all the positive comments that we’ve had, it’s definitely caused us to have to re-look at our plan.”
Smith also offered little insight on the expected addition of a NASCAR Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2018.
“We’ve always said we’d entertain a second date at Las Vegas,” Smith added.
Asked if he would discuss where a second date would come from, Smith said, “Not right now.”
Sources confirmed to Motorsport.com that the race would come from an existing date on the Cup series schedule but not necessarily from a track that SMI currently owns.
SMI currently owns the tracks at Atlanta, Bristol, Tenn., Charlotte, Kentucky, Las Vegas, New Hampshire, Sonoma, Calif. and Texas and hosts 12 Cup races a year.
In the past, NASCAR has allowed track owners to realign dates among their own tracks where it could still be placed within the current 36-race points-paying schedule.
Motorsport.com also reported that with the addition of a fall Las Vegas race to the Cup Series could also transition the series’ annual awards banquet, currently held in Las Vegas, could move to Charlotte as early as the 2018 season.
On Friday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal first reported Las Vegas Motor Speedway was close to gaining a second date for the 2018 season.
The LVRJ added the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board “scheduled a special meeting Wednesday (Mar. 8) to consider a seven-year $2.5 million annual sponsorship agreement with NASCAR that would include the addition of a fall race at the speedway.”
Ironically, NASCAR’s thid stop next weekend is at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Kobalt 400 on Mar. 12.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
