NASCAR adds second Atlanta race in 2021

NASCAR will make two stops at Atlanta Motor Speedway next season for the first time since 2010.

AMS announced Wednesday that the 2021 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 will be run March 21. It will add the Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart on July 11, as part of NASCAR’s revamped 36-race slate of its top division.

It will be the first July race held at AMS in 47 years, and AMS General Manager Brandon Hutchison said Wednesday that he hopes it will be the first of many second races hosted by the speedway each year. The start times for the races weren’t announced.

“If everybody who has asked in the past 10 years if Atlanta is ever going to get its second race back will come out and join us it will be hard for anybody to even try to think about moving the race away," he said.

A factor in determining if a second race will become the norm will be the number of people in the grandstands, he said. Hutchison said the speedway has added many entertainment options, including the Bootleggers Bar, expanded wifi, expanded campgrounds, cornhole courts and bocci-ball courts. These were built in anticipation of the 2020 race, which was moved from the second week of the season to the fifth week, March 15. Postponed by the coronavirus pandemic, Kevin Harvick took the checkered flag June 7, in front of no fans.

“We want to make sure we do everything in our power to get people to come out and enjoy our facility,” he said. “If everybody who can’t make it will turn on the TV and watch, it will be hard to take a second race from any speedway, not just Atlanta Motor Speedway.”

For safety measures related to COVID-19, the speedway likely will cap attendance at approximately 20,000 for the first race to keep at least six feet between groups of spectators. That total is based upon information sharing from other speedways that have hosted races with limited capacity. The speedway’s capacity during normal times is 70,000.

Those who purchased tickets for the race in 2020, and chose to receive a credit, can apply that money toward either or both of next year’s races. They need to go to the track’s website and log into their account by Nov. 1. The speedway hopes to let people know their assigned seats for their first race by Jan. 1.

The Hampton track, which opened in 1960, had hosted two race weekends a year in spring and fall until it lost its fall race, starting in the 2011 season to Kentucky Speedway — owned by the same Speedway Motorsports Inc. that owns AMS. Kentucky was one of two racetracks to lose its spot on the 2021 NASCAR schedule. The other was Chicagoland Speedway.

Getting that second race back, for at least one year, involved a lot of “politicking," according to Hutchison, and taking advantage of strong relationships between Speedway Motorsports and NASCAR.

“We are excited about it and hopefully everyone will come back and support Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2021,” he said