Track Trivia: Atlanta Motor Speedway

The Beast of the Southeast moniker has been claimed by many sports organizations. But it was true of Atlanta Motor Speedway last spring, when the Goodyear tires just got chewed up by the track surface (leading to one of the funniest grumpy-old-man quotes from Tony Stewart of all time). Greg Biffle says the tire tests he participated in show the tires will hold up this year so the racing will be better--we'll have to hold him to that. 

South of Atlanta, the track was built in 1960, but has been significantly renovated since the mid-nineties by the bad boy of track owners, Bruton Smith. It's a quad-oval, 1.54 mile track which makes for a 325-lap, 501-mile race. There's 24 degrees of banking in the turns and 5 degrees on the straightaways. The grandstands hold 124,000 fans--hopefully. Kyle Busch is the defending race winner, and I have used him to anchor my winning-streak fantasy team. I'm too superstitious, at least early in the season, to think the same driver can win two races in a row (which means I never expected Matt Kenseth's two-win start to the season, of course). I never advised actually taking my picks--I'm just sharing my thought process, flawed as it may be. 

I originally planned to go with Carl Edwards for this race, as he's won here before. But he didn't qualify well--starting position, for some reason, means a lot here--so I'm going with Kevin Harvick, again not an odds-on favorite pick. That's how the fantasy game goes, setting rosters before qualifying. Who knows, if he does well in final practice maybe I'll re-anoint Cousin Carl. In any case, let's hope it's a hot afternoon in the old town on Sunday, for all the right reasons.