Atlanta eyes switch to Labor Day race

UPDATE This rumor is upgraded to 'fact' today. NASCAR will run under the lights at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2009, The Associated Press has learned.

There’s more: The new night race is expected to be run on Labor Day weekend.

Atlanta Motor Speedway and NASCAR officials are planning to announce a schedule change Tuesday that will include the night race announcement, said a racing official who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the change had not been made public.

Atlanta’s place on the racing calendar also could move. There has been speculation Atlanta Motor Speedway will be part of a three-way trade of race dates for next year’s Sprint Cup schedule that also involves the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., and Talladega Superspeedway.

Atlanta would receive the 2009 Labor Day weekend race that’s happening this season in California. Fontana would receive Talladega’s fall race, while Talladega would receive Atlanta’s fall race, set for late October this year. AP Story

03/12/08 Get ready for Atlanta Motor Speedway to have night Sprint Cup races – or at least AMS officials want you to get ready for night races.

If Atlanta gets the Labor Day weekend race, the plan would be to run it on Saturday or Sunday night, Speedway Motorsports President H.A.“Humpy" Wheeler told financial analysts Wednesday.

“What we really want to do is try to run Atlanta at night," Wheeler said. “We have lights down there. Everything changes at night.

"Going to Labor Day weekend, it’s a big holiday. We get a day to get people back. We could run it on Sunday night, which is a big TV night, or Saturday night. It doesn’t matter. It would make all the difference in the world."

SMI is pushing for Atlanta and International Speedway Corp.'s Auto Club Speedway in California to swap their second dates, with California getting a date in late October, while Atlanta would get the Labor Day weekend race.

“It would help the track at Fontana also, being in October, it is a little bit better weather for them," Wheeler said. “We continue to talk to
ISC and NASCAR about this. Obviously, NASCAR doesn’t want rainouts, they don’t want bad dates."

And, if SMI had its way, it would run a night race at Atlanta in early June instead of a day race in mid-March.

“The big question if that [swap] is done is what do we do in March?" Wheeler said. “We probably would rather run that March date in early June when we could run it at night again. More at Scenedaily.com