Better attendance for night race at AMS

By Rick Minter

For the AJC

Atlanta Motor Speedway president Ed Clark and his staff didn’t get the checkered flag after Sunday’s Pep Boys Auto 500, but they may wind up being the big winner in the end.

The track’s first scheduled nighttime Sprint Cup race ran before grandstands that were fairly full. Recent races at the track saw numerous empty seats, prompting the switch in the track’s second race date from Halloween to Labor Day weekend.

“We’ve wanted to have a night race here for almost as long as the fans, and we’re grateful for the response to this weekend’s event,” Clark said Sunday.

The track president also confirmed that there will be two Cup races at AMS next year, with the opening Kobalt Tools 500 coming on March 7 and the second 500-miler on Labor Day weekend.

Clark and officials from Henry County also announced that work will begin early next year on the “Gateway to Atlanta Motor Speedway.” That will include a replica of the track’s Victory Lane that will be constructed at the ramp to Exit 218 on I-75. That’s the exit for Bruton Smith Parkway, the main highway connecting the speedway to the interstate.

Prelude to the Dream

Tony Stewart and many of his fellow Sprint Cup drivers who spent Sunday night slipping and sliding around on the worn pavement at AMS will get to run really sideways on Wednesday night at Stewart’s Eldora Speedway, a dirt track in Rossburg, Ohio.

The Prelude to the Dream features Cup drivers running dirt Late Model cars with the proceeds going to charity. It was rained out earlier this year, and Stewart said weather is weighing on his mind again this time.

“I’ve been kind of paranoid this year; I am every time we have this event,” Stewart said. “When our [AMS] race is over, then I’m going to look at the Weather Channel, and it will be the channel for the week. Until then, I don’t even want to know what the weather is.”

One former Dream winner likely won’t be in the starting field. Carl Edwards is expected to withdraw because of his broken foot, suffered in a fall while chasing a Frisbee last week.

“I’m pretty sure that we are probably going to lose Carl [Edwards] from the list,” Stewart said. “Everybody else is still on board, and we actually ended up adding A.J. Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose from the spring list.”

The race can be seen on HBO pay-per-view.

Going his own way

Brian Vickers is making a habit this season of proving wrong the conventional racing wisdom. First he got in a crash with Dale Earnhardt Jr., the sport’s most popular driver, during the season-opening Daytona 500, but wound up getting broad support from fans across the board, including many members of the “Junior Nation.”

Then he won at Michigan in his Red Bull Toyota, validating his decision to leave Hendrick Motorsports to drive for a start-up race team. He also has a circuit-leading six poles this season.

Now he’s in contention for a berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, a position that usually goes to drivers from one of the powerhouse teams like Hendrick, Roush Fenway Racing or Joe Gibbs Racing.

“I’m so proud of the performance of the team and how far we’ve come, the poles, the wins,” Vickers said. “But we’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us.”