NASCAR: Let’s try this again
By Asher Fair
NASCAR is once again set to travel to Atlanta Motor Speedway. The last time that happened, the season was suspended indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Atlanta Motor Speedway has hosted just one NASCAR Cup Series race per season since 2011 after hosting two each year ever since it opened all the way back in 1960.
So for the first time since 2011, NASCAR is set to make a second trip to the four-turn, 1.54-mile (2.478-kilometer) Atlanta Motor Speedway oval in Hampton, Georgia this weekend — but not for a second race weekend.
The last time the sport headed to the track was after the race weekend at Phoenix Raceway concluded on Sunday, March 8 with the fourth Cup Series race of the season.
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There was scheduled to be an Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday, March 13, a Truck Series race at the track on Saturday, March 14 and a Cup Series race there on Sunday, March 15.
But on Friday, March 13, NASCAR suspended the 2020 season indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Unfortunately for Atlanta Motor Speedway, the fact that it was the fifth track on the schedule turned out to be a pretty raw deal, as it had hosted the second race of the season going back to 2015 and one of the first four races of the season going all the way back to 1982. Instead, in its first year hosting the season’s fifth race since 1981, it ended up being the first track to see its race postponed due to the pandemic.
The teams packed everything up and left the venue without any competition having taken place. Action ended up not resuming until Sunday, May 17 at Darlington Raceway with a previously non-scheduled race following a 10-week hiatus.
But now NASCAR is back. So let’s try this again.
There won’t be fans in attendance this weekend, but Atlanta Motor Speedway is set to see all the action it would have seen back in mid-March on the first weekend in June.
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There is a Truck Series race and an Xfinity Series race on the schedule for Saturday, June 6, and there is a Cup Series race on the schedule for Sunday, June 7. The Truck Series race is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 while the other two events are set to be broadcast live on Fox.
Hopefully things go a lot more smoothly this time around, and they should; the Truck Series has already had one race contested since the sport returned, while the Xfinity Series has had three and the Cup Series has had five.