CUP: AMS Track President Laments Losing Race

Sprint Cup

CUP: AMS Track President Laments Losing Race

Atlanta Motor Speedway's second race date will go to Kentucky Speedway in 2011...

Bob Pockrass | http://www.scenedaily.com | Posted August 05, 2010 Charlotte, NC

Atlanta Motor Speedway is popular among NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Atlanta Motor Speedway officials will try to rebound from the disappointment of losing one of its two Sprint Cup races by trying to make its lone Sprint Cup date a sold-out event.

The 1.5-mile track, which currently seats 101,000, will lose its March date, track president Ed Clark said Thursday. That race will go to Kentucky Speedway, but will not be in March.

That leaves AMS with the Sept. 4 race on Labor Day weekend as its only Cup event on the 2011 schedule.

“I certainly hate it for our hard-working staff members here at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the fans in our area to see that change occur,” Clark said in a phone interview Thursday.

Clark said SMI Chairman Bruton Smith could address the reasons AMS lost a date better than he could. Smith has a press conference scheduled for Tuesday at Kentucky Speedway.

“I think probably Bruton exhausted every opportunity to get an additional date by traditional methods [by buying a track] and any method he could think of,” Clark said. “He’s never been one to give up anything he’s got. He loves this track. He loves the racing here.

“I’m sure he anguished over this decision. No doubt about it. I know he did. It never is easy.”

Ticket sales have been sluggish at the track for the last several years. The fall race got a “huge increase” in ticket sales in 2009 from being moved from late October to Labor Day weekend, Clark said. Ticket sales for that race were good enough that Clark believes he can make that weekend date work well.

My SPEED is devoted to the passionate fans who celebrate motorcycles, motorsports and the automotive lifestyle.

Clark said if some of the fans who only attended the March race buy tickets for the Labor Day race, it could help fill the seats. Atlanta also has increased its activities on Labor Day weekend – where cars are on the track on Saturday and Sunday – with a driver question-and-answer session, a short-track race on Friday night and a free breakfast for ticketholders on Monday.

“There are enough fans that when you look back historically, [you see that] when Texas opened and it only had one [race] how well it did and how well Vegas does with the one event it has,” Clark said. “Why can’t we do the same thing here? … There are a lot of other things we can look at doing to make the weekend a true happening in this part of the country.”

For now, Atlanta has a Nationwide Series race on the Cup weekend in September. It does not have a Truck Series event scheduled so far for 2011. Clark said he would examine whether another racing event could be scheduled for the spring.

Clark said his employees currently are focused on the race coming up in four weeks.

“Each and every one of our staff committed to take Labor Day weekend and continue to build it with the goal of completely selling this place out over time and making it the biggest event in our state,” Clark said. “We have to look forward. You can’t look back. You can’t change what’s occurred.”

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