On Thursday Night’s edition of SiruisXM NASCAR Radio’s “Dialed In” with Claire B. Lang, Marcus Smith – President and CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc. — dropped a massive hint on the future of Atlanta Motor Speedway and the reasoning behind the 1.54-mile track receiving a second date on the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Schedule.
“Atlanta, we also have a repave coming up, and it’s not going to be for the Spring race, but we are working on plans for a repave and a re-profiling of the track, to do something really exciting there, that’s a big reason why we are taking two races back to AMS.”
AUDIO: @MarcusSMI joined @ClaireBLang on #DialedIn tonight and explained why @amsupdates will see two race weekends in 2021:
A repave is coming ? pic.twitter.com/HXbcqkeymd
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) October 2, 2020
Atlanta Motor Speedway hasn’t been paved in over 23 years – when it was reconfigured in 1997 — and is one of the series’ most abrasive surfaces on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit, something that many drivers have expressed immense admiration for over the years.
While it doesn’t appear that Atlanta will be repaved for the Spring event in 2021, it is possible that come July 2021 or Spring 2022, the 1.54-mile track may look different than it ever has before.
On Wednesday, it was announced that Atlanta Motor Speedway would hold two NASCAR National Series race weekends on March 19th to 21st and July 9th to 11th, including two NASCAR Cup Series events, two NASCAR Xfinity Series events and one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event (March).