For Real Racing, Real Fast Go To Atlanta Motor Speedway

Atlanta Motor Speedway, Real Racing. Real Fast

Atlanta Motor Speedway

Built in 1960 at a cost of just $1.8 Million Dollars the Atlanta Motor Speedway is 20 miles south of the city of Atlanta, Georgia. The original track was built on 870 acres but was rebuilt in 1997 as a quad-oval racetrack, much like Texas Motor Speedway. Track banking in turns is 24 degrees with 5 degree banking on the straights.

Seating capacity in this fan friendly track is 124,000 and they say there is not a bad seat in the house. Free parking is available on all speedway controlled property. Reserved camping inside the track starts at $100 to $150 and unreserved camping outside the track begins around $60.

Atlanta Motor Speedway is the fastest track on the Nascar Nextel Cup Circuit. With a typical qualifying lap speed of about 193 mph and a record lap speed of over 197 mph, the track has been able to avoid restrictor plates which Nascar has done to the longer Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway. This is one of the reasons the slogan for Atlanta Motor Speedway is Real Racing. Real Fast.

Track records include NASCAR Nextel Cup Qualifying by Geoffrey Bodine at 28.074 seconds and 197.478 mph in 1997. Dale Earnhardt holds the NASCAR Nextel Cup Race record of 500 miles in 3 h 3 min 3 s at an average speed of 163.633 mph on November 12, 1995.

Sundays forecast is Sunny with a high of 61 degrees. So bring a coat and watch the race live or sit back at home and watch Nascar Nextel Cup racing at its fastest.

Winner In Life, On the Field and The Track

Winning NFL Coach and Nascar Team Owner

Starting in 1991, Gibbs has ran a Championship Nascar
Nextel Cup Series Team as well as a Nascar Busch Series
Team. With 3 Nascar Nextel Cup Championships he is still
involved in finding and developing young drivers and
helping them to become winners both on and off the racetrack.

This year is Gibbs' 16th year as a team owner in the Nascar
Series and his 10th year as an owner in the Nascar Busch
Series. In 1997 he bought Bobby Labonte’s Busch Team and
in 1999 he acquired Diamond Ridge Motorsports. Tony Stewart
set the stage for his joining JGR in 1998 by running a
five-race Busch schedule with Terry Labonte's team in 1997.

Football coaching started for Joe Gibbs after he graduated
from San Diego State University in 1964. He worked as an
assistant coach at the collegiate level and in the NFL for
17 years before being named as Head Coach of the Redskins
in 1981. By 1983 he won his first NFL Championship and 2
more in 1988 and 1992. He left after the 1992 SuperBowl
Season only to return 11 years later in January 2004.

With all that gridiron success, Joe was still thrilled with
the challenge from Nascar Racing. He fielded his first team
in the 1992 Daytona 500. By 1999 he fielded his second team
after seeing that the sport was heading to multi-car teams.
A third race car was added for 2005.

In 2000, the No. 18 teamrace team of Bobby Labonte won the
Nascar Championship Trophy. In only 9 years he had built a
team and taken it to the top. He did it again with the
Tony Stewart/Greg Zipadelli/Home Depot team in 2002 and 2005.

“The thing that has always amazed me about championship runs
in pro sports, at least in the three I’ve been involved with
here and the three I had in the NFL, is how hard they are and
how different they are, and that one year doesn’t buy you the
next,” said Gibbs. “I love that about pro sports. It’s why
I’m here.”

Joe Gibbs has three Nextel Cup Series rings as a Nascar team
owner, three Super Bowl rings as coach of the NFL’s Redskins
and The Associated Press Coach of the Year in 1982, 1983 and
1991 and was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in
1996.

With all of this success he has also found rewards in his
love for family. His oldest son, J.D. Gibbs is the President
of JGR. Coy Gibbs is on the Redskins coaching staff. He is
married to his supportive wife Pat and they have 6 grandchildren.