The track surface at Atlanta Motor Speedway is starting to look awfully gray which means it’s losing grip and no matter what that means for the future, it’s a welcome sign for NASCAR Cup Series drivers just looking for a little more room to showcase their skills.
You have to understand, the freshly paved higher banked version of Atlanta born in 2022 has produced full-throttle pack racing but it’s also not the greatest showcase of traditional talent in the minds of those holding the steering wheel.
Once the track surface starts to lose grip, there might be two different directions the industry could take — swap the superspeedway rules package for the standard intermediate version or just have a more spread-out superspeedway race.
Both are fine options as far as racers are concerned.
Generally speaking, most everyone in the Cup Series garage would like to see NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports take off the big spoiler and increase horsepower, even if it’s unlikely to happen.
“Do you think NASCAR is going to do that,” said a dismissive Kyle Larson.
After all, this entire project was born of Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith wanting his own superspeedway track even without having a 2.5-mile track like Daytona or Talladega.
“It doesn’t matter,” added Larson.
It’s probably not a leap to assume that Larson would prefer anything else in NASCAR to a superspeedway style pack race but wasn’t going to get into the weeds on it.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. called old Atlanta his favorite race track, and expressed hope that they can get away from pack racing there, but was also skeptical that this place will ever get away from pack racing.
“I don’t know if Marcus wants that,” Stenhouse said. “They like the racing they got now but it can be better. I liked our fall race here. I know we got a three-wide, two rows deep finish but I thought the fall race was better. You had cars that were fast early and would lose their handling and then the field gets shaken up.
“As a driver, I had a blast. Everyone did.”
Stenhouse noted that he and his peers were very skeptical about what this place was turned into after the 2021 race but have been pleasantly surprised by the end result.
“I think it’s kind of coming into its own now,” Stenhouse said. “Atlanta was my favorite mile-and-a half before the repave. I think a lot of people shared that sentiment. If it keeps wearing out and we keep having to lift, I think this package is going to be fine and we’re still going to have to decide between how fast to make our car or how much handling do we give it.
“We already have that here now compared to Talladega. There, it’s all speed. At Daytona, there is a handling aspect to where you have to decide how much to slow your car down for a little bit of downforce, especially in August. But that process here happened a lot quicker than anyone thought. And if it keeps going that direction, I don’t know. I’m always a fan of adding some horsepower and taking some downforce away.”
Brad Keselowski agreed that Atlanta is becoming very similar to the old worn out Daytona.
“I think this is turning into Daytona before the repave, which you could still pass,” Keselowski said. “Before the repave, it was harder. It became more of a single file race track but race craft meant so much then. I think that’s where Atlanta is going.”
Dillon echoed that sentiment that the track will continue to get better even while retaining the superspeedway package.
“I think until the racing changes that it should stay the same because I think the fans like it,” Dillon said. “Even if it does keep aging, I don’t see anything wrong with the speedway package per se. I think we have to work on the handling of the cars and could be a really interesting race even if we get strung out a little bit. I don’t think we need to put the intermediate package in.”
Ryan Blaney said ‘I hope so’ when asked if he thought this could become an intermediate track package race again.
“A lot of drivers didn’t like it, and I was one of them, when they reconfigured this place but it’s actually put on really good racing,” Blaney said. “I think it’s getting better every year as the tires get worn out and there’s a little bit of separation and gap. I would think in the next 3-4 years that it maybe could go to an intermediate track package.
“Is that going to happen? I doubt it. I really do. You never know but fans seem to like it and it puts on a really good show. Maybe but I wouldn’t put my money on it.”
Alex Bowman also said “I hope so” when asked that same question.
“If we go back to the intermediate package, I think the fans won’t love the racing as much as they do the pack racing,” Bowman said. “I don’t know. It will be interesting to see. It looks like it’s worn out a lot … Looking at it, it’s getting lighter in a hurry and it’s going to be interesting to see what happens in the next couple of years.”
Joey Logano said this conversation is all a moot point because even though the track looks worn out, it still has a lot of grip, especially for the Cup cars and its wider lower profile tires.
“I think there’s going to be a fair amount of grip this weekend, so I don’t know if you’re worried about that too much,” Logano said. “It’s also pretty cool out.
“To me, this is like the old 550 package racing we used to have. It’s kind of what it looks like and sometimes drives like. If the track naturally wears out and starts to wear tires out, I think that’s fine too. If we have to make an adjustment, we can, but I don’t know that we need to be looking at that yet.”
Chase Elliott says at some point, everyone is going to come to Atlanta be surprised when the track loses all of its grip suddenly but doesn’t think it’s going to be soon.
“Yeah, I mean I didn’t think it had changed a whole lot last year, honestly,” Elliott said. “You know, I think we’re still on the slow side enough of the envelope that it’s okay. Now, like the Xfinity (Series) cars, they might get in that mid-range a little bit sooner than we will.
“But our cars are pretty draggy and slow here, so I think it will be a bit yet until it becomes an issue or handling becomes a huge issue. But I could be wrong. I could be surprised today.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.
