NASCAR Track Facts: Atlanta Motor Speedway

Pep Boys Auto 500

NASCAR heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend for the seventh race of the Chase.

Here is a quick run down of trivial facts and statistics for this weekend’s Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, GA.

Atlanta Motor Speedway History

Originally called Atlanta International Raceway, the track was then a 1.5-mile paved speedway.
The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was on July 31, 1960, won by Fireball Roberts.
Jeff Gordon won the first NASCAR Nationwide race at Atlanta held March 14, 1992.
The first NASCAR Craftsman Truck series race at Atlanta was held March 13, 2004 and won by Bobby Hamilton.
The track was re-measured to 1.522 miles in the spring of 1970.
The track layout was reversed and the track was re-configured to 1.54-miles between the two races in 1997.

Pep Boys Auto 500

Track Numbers

NASCAR Cup Series Races: 98
Pole Winners: 43
Race Winners: 42
There have been 98 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Atlanta Speedway, two races per year except 1961, which had three.
Fireball Roberts won the pole for the first NASCAR Sprint Cup race in 1960.
Fireball Roberts won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
43 drivers have won poles, led by Buddy Baker and Ryan Newman, each with seven.
Six of Newman’s seven poles came in the six races between March 2003 and October 2005.
42 drivers have won races; 20 have won more than once there.
Dale Earnhardt scored nine victories, more than any other driver. Cale Yarborough is second with seven.
Bobby Labonte heads the list of active drivers with six Atlanta victories. Labonte is tied with Richard Petty for third on the all-time Atlanta win list.
14 races have been won from the pole.
55 races have been won from the first five starting positions.
Bobby Labonte won the 2001 fall race from the 39th starting position, the deepest in the field a race winner has started.
There have been seven season sweeps at Atlanta, most recently by Jimmie Johnson in 2007.
There has been one green-white-checkered finish at Atlanta: 2007-2 (329 laps).

Hot Fact

Atlanta has produced three of the 12 closest finishes since the advent of electronic timing in May 1993.

Dale Earnhardt finished 0.010 seconds ahead of Bobby Labonte in the sixth-closest race (tied with Rockingham-2004) on March 12, 2000.
Kevin Harvick beat Jeff Gordon by 0.006 seconds on March 11, 2001, in the fourth-closest finish.
Carl Edwards beat Jimmie Johnson by 0.028 seconds on March 20, 2005, in the 12th-closest finish (tied with Texas in April 2004).

Track Records

Qualifying/Race Data

Atlanta Race Day Data