Back to Main Page

John's Thoughts on Atlanta 

           “For a long time Atlanta was the fastest track that we went to.   I don’t know if Texas has beaten it or not, but it’s even faster than Daytona and Talladega because it’s unrestricted.   It’s a great place to go.  Ed Clark (president of Atlanta Motor Speedway) and his staff always treat us well there.  We love going there.  The weather hasn’t always been especially kind to the Atlanta folks, but we love going to that town and racing there.

            “It’s a great city with a lot of racing fans.  I’ve spent a lot of time and effort making sure that we reward those fans, too, with Andretti Indoor Karting and Games.  It’s a state-of-the art facility and we’re excited to have the Grand Opening this week.  We hope the fans can take time to get out there. It’s great for families, but also caters to businesses and adults.  It’s something we can do to give back to the fans and I hope everyone enjoys it.

            “After a busy week, this VB/APlus at Sunoco team has an important task at hand back at the speedway.  We are practicing Friday during the day and qualifying at night, but we’re not doing anything on Saturday.  That has been pretty typical for Atlanta - even in the Fall we practiced during the day and qualified at night, but it’s not too bad.  Charlotte (Lowe’s Motor Speedway) has been doing it for years. 

“It’s going to be a huge disadvantage to qualify early.  You just don’t want to be an early number (in qualifying draw), but not because the temperature is going to change like it does at Charlotte, but because you want to see where the race track is going.  A bunch of guys go out and they get real loose or real tight, depending on where the track is changing considerably.  If you qualify late at least you can do some tire pressure changes.  If you qualify late enough you can even make an adjustment t your car.

            “When you start climbing the mountain it doesn’t look so big when you first start climbing it, I guess.  As you are climbing it and get going up it, you realize that it gets bigger and bigger.  That’s where we are right now.  First, it’s the five races with these new rules and then it’s races where we are parked further down the line in the garage (based on points).  I’d rather have qualifying on the same day as opposed to what we did at California (qualified only on Saturday). I think it kept our team there just as long as it would have otherwise on Saturday.  We did save miles on our cars and using tires up, but otherwise I don’t know.  

“I like the agenda this week a lot better. What might be really cool is to practice and qualify on Saturday and just race on Sunday.  We can get rid of an entire day. That would be the best scenario for cost-saving and other things.  I think in some ways that is what NASCAR is building for, one step at a time - and at Atlanta that’s a huge step forward.  Practicing and qualifying on the same day is easily going to work this weekend.  It will be easier than practicing one day and then qualifying the next.

“Timewise, I don’t know if we’re burning a lot more time on the track than otherwise.  Friday, there is Busch practice, then Cup practice, Busch qualifying, and then Cup qualifying.   Sometimes they even have a Truck race.   Atlanta has lights.  Lights on a track do more for you to guarantee that weather is not going to be the determining factor in getting an event run.  In some ways I really like having lights.  The places we have Saturday night races we get to be home on Sunday.  I don’t like the lights if it means racing on Sunday night or if it means really extending the day.  If you have the ability to get the activities done on the track, which lights allow, it can sometimes extend the day.  Overall I think lights are positive at all track and we’re hoping to run fast under them this Friday night with this VB/APlus at Sunoco Ford.”