Night race planned for Atlanta?

[Schwartz Fan]

Racing source says night race planned for Atlanta
By CHARLES ODUM, AP Sports Writer
4 hours, 45 minutes ago

ATLANTA (AP)—NASCAR will run under the lights at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2009, The Associated Press has learned.

There’s more: The new night race is expected to be run on Labor Day weekend.

Atlanta Motor Speedway and NASCAR officials are planning to announce a schedule change Tuesday that will include the night race announcement, said a racing official who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the change had not been made public.

Atlanta’s place on the racing calendar also could move. There has been speculation Atlanta Motor Speedway will be part of a three-way trade of race dates for next year’s Sprint Cup schedule that also involves the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., and Talladega Superspeedway.


Atlanta would receive the 2009 Labor Day weekend race that’s happening this season in California. Fontana would receive Talladega’s fall race, while Talladega would receive Atlanta’s fall race, set for late October this year.

Fontana has struggled with overwhelming heat at its race on Labor Day weekend. The change would give the California track a spot in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

Meanwhile, there also is speculation the Iowa Speedway will gain a spot in the Nationwide Series schedule and the Chicagoland Speedway will add a Craftsman Truck Series date.


Racing source says night race planned for Atlanta - NASCAR - Yahoo! Sports

Cool. I'm a fan of night races. Nice to the get the Labor Day weekend race back on this side of the country. It might not be Darlington but Atlanta is good enough for me.

[Raven]

I like night races!

[Schwartz Fan]

I understand that the Atlanta area will benefit from the cooler temps in the evening...but I'll go on record as saying IMO night races do nothing for the sport but take away from it's future {insert rant about local tracks here}

Night races do nothing to increase attendance of the races and do nothing for competition and for many in this country it just means there's one less race to see every year. If they want night races then they should run them on Sundays...........again just my

[Raven]

Sunday night races wouldn't be practicle for the ones that have to be at work monday morning, depending on track and time. Then there's the school age kids to think about too.

[Schwartz Fan]

Originally Posted by Raven Sunday night races wouldn't be practicle for the ones that have to be at work monday morning, depending on track and time. Then there's the school age kids to think about too.

See there, just two more reasons to race during the day......J/K


I do see why some people like the night races, I just hate to see it hurt the local tracks that are fighting to stay opened.....

[Raven]

LOL!

I understand what you're saying, that is a bad situation.

But some Sundays I do have plans and that's benefit of night races for me. We have 2 Sunday night races on the schedule of I'm not mistaken. One each for Memorial Day and Labor Day Weekend?