Atlanta Motor Speedway won’t repave track before 2018 races

Drivers will get to compete on Atlanta’s worn, slippery surface for at least another year, but that’s exactly the way they want it.

Considering how often NASCAR drivers are on the radio during races complaining about a lack of grip, you’d think they would want as much of it as possible. But slippery tracks leave race outcomes mostly in the hands of the men behind the wheels, so at places like Atlanta Motor Speedway, older, more worn surfaces have grown to be cherished.

The problem is that eventually, tracks simply wear out and have to be replaced before they crumble. Atlanta Motor Speedway is facing exactly that dilemma, as the surface hasn’t been repaved since 1997, which is why its owner, Speedway Motorsports Inc., was considering doing it before the 2018 NASCAR season.

According to NASCAR.com, SMI has changed its mind about an Atlanta repave, putting it off until after next year’s races.

"“We’re going to repave, it’s just a matter of when we’re going to do it,” Ed Clark, AMS president and general manager, told NASCAR.com Tuesday. “We know we have to do it sooner rather than later.“We’ve talked to fans, to people in the NASCAR garage, spent a good bit of time with Rick Campbell of Goodyear, and we came to the conclusion that with a little bit of work, cutting out some spots and patching them, we could go another year."

SMI will get an idea of what might happen at Atlanta when NASCAR heads to Texas Motor Speedway, another of its facilities, in just a few weeks. Texas received a complete repave and reconfiguration this offseason due to its age and inability to dry quickly after rain delays.

As with Atlanta, drivers were sorry to see the old racing surface go, but Brad Keselowski told NASCAR.com he understands the rock and hard place the tracks are stuck between.

"“It’s tough, and I feel bad for those guys because all it takes is one race where there are weepers or where the track comes apart and you’ve got red flags and delays and everybody gets mad at them,” Keselowski said. “So they’re really in a no‑win spot. We pick on them and tell them don’t do it and all these other things, but at some point you have to trust them to know their business.”"

Indeed, no one wants to see tracks come apart during races, and similar incidents have been among the most embarrassing NASCAR moments of this decade. SMI certainly doesn’t want boring, one-groove racing at its properties for several years while the new surfaces get broken in, but it can’t put off replacing them forever.

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Texas will be an interesting case study, but even if things get boring there, Atlanta has at least one more race weekend waiting for it with the status quo intact. Make sure not to miss it next March.