Just Racing - Hot Atlanta?

Mar 06,2008 00:00 by Steve Mickey
This week’s stop on the Sprint Cup schedule takes us to Atlanta Motor Speedway for what will be some of the fastest racing action we will see all season long. Like any other of Bruton Smith’s Speedway Motorsports seven tracks, Atlanta is definitely fan friendly but unlike the rest of the Smith’s tracks this one has a hard time selling tickets.
You can bet come Sunday that you will see more empty seats at Atlanta than any other stop on the schedule and it has nothing to do about the racing or the track itself. The one thing we know about Smith is that if there is something at one of his tracks that is hindering a fan’s enjoyment of a race that it will definitely be changed. Smith has done a lot over the years at his tracks but unfortunately for Atlanta there is little that he can do for Atlanta’s problem.
Nobody including Smith can control Atlanta’s early March weather. The race has been plagued in recent years with rain and cold temperatures which will definitely force a ticket holder to let a ticket renewal form go unanswered.
I for one have attended at least a half of dozen March Atlanta races in recent years and I can say that I have witnessed and experienced just about all that Mother Nature has to offer. I have been very wet and cold but I also must admit that I came home one year with a heck of a sunburn. In fact my fondest Atlanta memory was getting my picture taken with David Pearson on pit road one year only to be disappointed when we got the pictures developed which showed that both David and myself had on such big jackets along with a scarf and toboggan that you couldn’t tell if it was either one of us!
Regardless of the weather this weekend, Atlanta will be putting on one of the best shows on the schedule that will feature three days of NASCAR racing. Friday night the Craftsman Truck Series will do battle in the American Commercial Lines 200 followed Saturday by the Nicorette 300 Nationwide Series event. The Cup drivers will battle Sunday in the Kobalt Tools 500 which will feature a purse of over $5 million.
PIT NOTES: This is the first column for March and it seems like its already time to utter one of the most hated words in all of Cup racing, “POINTS RACING”. Sure there has only been three races but what a difference a year can make. One has to look no further than Brian Vickers who now sits in the 13th slot in the point standings to see what a difference a year can make. The Red Bull Toyota driver finished 38th in the points last season after failing to qualify for thirteen races and had to start this season without the luxury of being guaranteed a spot in the starting field if he didn’t make the race on speed. He’s not out of the woods yet as he still has to qualify on speed for the next two races before the current top-35 in owner’s points are guaranteed a starting spot. – When somebody like Vickers is enjoying success in the standings it can only mean that a few of the regulars that normally occupy one the top-12 spots in the standings are experiencing some rough times. Last season’s runner-up in the points standings Jeff Gordon had a very hard crash at Vegas which caused him to finish 35th and drop eight slots in the standings to the 22nd spot, 138 points out of the top-12. The misery didn’t end there for Hendrick Motorsports as Gordon’s teammate and two-time defending Cup champion Jimmy Johnson finished 29th on Sunday which dropped him six positions to the 14th spot in the standings. – Now if you’re a fan of either of these two drivers don’t go out running into the night just yet cause with the season being so young that it is not uncommon to see a driver pick up a double digit climb in the standings after a race. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was one such driver on Sunday as his runner-up finish to Carl Edwards moved him up thirteen spots to the 11th slot in the standings. Another driver that made the Chase last season and had gotten off to a bad start is Denny Hamlin. His ninth place finish was good enough to catapult him eleven spots to the 20th position in the standings. – It is easy to see that no driver in the top-12 is safe at this point and that all it takes is one good race to put a driver back in contention for the Chase but it must also be said that it only takes one bad finish for a driver to find himself having to already start having to play catch up and start counting those points.