Connect with us

Published

4 years ago

on

3:42 PM ET

  • Associated Press

HAMPTON, Ga. — After 24 years, Speedway Motorsports officials could no longer allow drivers to have the final word in delaying the inevitable repaving of Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Sunday’s NASCAR race will be the final event for the battered and heavily patched track surface. Construction will begin immediately on the makeover, which will include a reprofile, with 28-degree banking on the turns replacing the 24-degree banking. The project was announced Tuesday.

The decision comes in the year Atlanta Motor Speedway is hosting two NASCAR events for the first time since 2010. The move reflects a commitment to again have two events in 2022.

Atlanta Motor Speedway president Brandon Hutchinson said the resurfacing was overdue, no matter the schedule.

“We’ve known for a while a repave had to take place,” Hutchinson said. “Asphalt can only last so long. A repave has been inevitable for some time.”

In fact, the repaving discussion has been a hot topic with drivers in Atlanta for at least five years. The drivers consistently lobbied to keep the old track.

The plans to finally change the surface were announced following 10 months of research, including computer simulations from iRacing. The changes were designed to accommodate the 2022 introduction of NASCAR’s Next Gen car.

Officials did not seek input from NASCAR drivers.

“We try to make sure, and I say this I kind of jest, when a driver is happy about our race track, usually the fans aren’t,” Speedway Motorsports senior vice-president for operations and development Stephen Swift said.

“We want to make sure what we’re creating is what the fans want to see.”

Kyle Larson, who lost to Ryan Blaney in the March race in Atlanta, tweeted that he wished drivers had been consulted.

“I wish they would talk to everybody about it,” Larson posted on his Twitter account. “We have more experience than the fans, you know, I’ve raced hundreds of different racetracks. I feel like we have a better understanding of what really makes good racing.”

Swift said “every kind of stickum” has been used to patch the track.

“We’ve been holding it together, glued together, literally,” Swift said. “It’s just gotten to the point it’s worn out. We’ve just been buying time and that time is now.”

Georgia home-state favorite Chase Elliott, who won last week’s race at Road America in Wisconsin, has joined others drivers in the past in pushing to delay resurfacing as long as possible – but he has changed his mind.

Elliott, who has never won at his home track, said he now supports plans to repave the surface.

“My opinion has kind of changed on it, really,” Elliott said. “I certainly had been in the boat of wanting to leave it alone and not repave it. It’s a place that rewards precision, rewards a driver for really doing a good job behind the wheel in all aspects.”

Elliott said his opinion was swayed by talking with friends who attend races in Atlanta.

“I think it’s time for it,” he said of the decision to repave the track. “I have a lot of friends and folks who go down there, and listening to their comments and my own thoughts as time has gone on, I just feel like it’s time. … I’m good with the change down there and I hope it’s for the better. I think it will be.”

In addition to higher banks, the repaving project also will decrease the width of the 1.54-mile track from 55 feet to 52 on the front stretch, 42 on the back stretch and 40 on the turns.

Larson said that will make for tight turns.

“That’s more than two car widths narrower, so that’s a lot,” Larson said.

Swift said the narrower track will push the cars “in groups together. That creates better entertainment. Atlanta will be first mile and a half to have this kind of racing.”

That change caught Elliott’s attention.

“Narrowing the track is probably the biggest headline I think in all of that I read, and kind of the unknown with that,” he said.

“It sounds like Atlanta has put a lot of thought into it. I think that’s all you can ask for. I think it’s time and I think they’re going about it the right way.”

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Sports

Springer’s 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

Published

5 hours ago

on

July 2, 2025

By

Springer's 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

  • ESPN News Services

Jul 1, 2025, 07:23 PM ET

George Springer had a career-high seven RBIs, including his ninth grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated Canada Day by beating the Yankees 12-5 on Tuesday and closing within one game of American League East-leading New York.

The seven RBIs are tied for the second most by any Blue Jays player in a home game, behind Edwin Encarnación (nine RBIs in 2015), according to ESPN Research.

Andrés Giménez had a go-ahead, three-run homer for the Blue Jays, who overcame a 2-0 deficit against Max Fried. After the Yankees tied the score 4-4 in the seventh, Toronto broke open the game in the bottom half against a reeling Yankees bullpen.

Springer went 3-for-4, starting the comeback with a solo homer in the fourth against Fried and boosting the lead to 9-5 with the slam off Luke Weaver after Ernie Clement‘s go-ahead single off shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s glove. Springer has 13 homers this season.

Toronto won the first two games of the four-game series and closed within one game of the Yankees for the first time since before play on April 20.

New York went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 3-for-24 in the series, while the Blue Jays were 5-for-7. After going 13-14 in June, the Yankees fell to 10-14 against AL East rivals.

The Associate Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Sports

Astros’ Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

Published

5 hours ago

on

July 2, 2025

By

Astros' Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

  • Associated Press

Jul 1, 2025, 08:23 PM ET

DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez has experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken right hand and will see a specialist.

Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez felt pain when he arrived Tuesday at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a workout a day earlier. Alvarez also took batting practice Saturday at Daikin Park.

He will be shut down until he’s evaluated by the specialist.

“It’s a tough time going through this with Yordan, but I know that he’s still feeling pain and the soreness in his hand,” Brown said before Tuesday night’s series opener at Colorado, which the Astros won 6-5. “We’re not going to try to push it or force him through anything. We’re just going to allow him to heal and get a little bit more answers as to what steps we take next.”

Alvarez has been sidelined for nearly two months. The injury was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain, but when Alvarez felt pain again while hitting in late May, imaging revealed a small fracture.

The 28-year-old outfielder, who has hit 31 homers or more in each of the past four seasons, had been eyeing a return as soon as this weekend at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s uncertain when he’ll play.

“We felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,” Brown said, “but this is certainly news that we didn’t want.”

Also Tuesday, the Astros officially placed shortstop Jeremy Peña on the 10-day injured list with a fractured rib and recalled infielder Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A Sugar Land.

Continue Reading

Sports

Ohtani’s 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

Published

5 hours ago

on

July 2, 2025

By

Ohtani's 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

  • ESPN News Services

Jul 2, 2025, 01:38 AM ET

Shohei Ohtani reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season, hitting a fourth-inning drive after fouling a pitch off the plate umpire, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night.

Ohtani fouled the ball off Alan Porter’s right knee in the fourth. Ohtani checked on the umpire and stood by watching until Parker got up under his own power. The three-time MVP then hit a 408-foot shot to center, snapping an 0-for-6 skid and extending the lead to 6-1. He tied Cody Bellinger in 2019 for most home runs before the All-Star break in Dodgers history; Bellinger won National League MVP that year.

Ohtani joined Seattle‘s Cal Raleigh (33) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (30) as players with at least 30 homers by the All-Star break; it marks the fifth season that three players have reached the 30-homer threshold before the break (2019, 1998, 1994, 1969).

As for Ohtani, this is his third season hitting at least 30 home runs before the break, tying Ken Griffey Jr. for third most in MLB history (Judge and Mark McGwire each did so for four seasons).

During the seventh-inning stretch, Ohtani walked over and checked on Porter again before leading off.

Los Angeles scored its most runs this season in support of Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-6), staking the Japanese right-hander to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

The Dodgers won for the 13th time in 16 games and opened a season-high, eight-game NL West lead. They are 16-5 (.762 win percentage) since June 8, the best record in MLB during that span.

Every run Tuesday night was scored with two outs.

Yamamoto allowed one run and three hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked one.

White Sox rookie Shane Smith (3-6) got two quick outs in the first before walking Will Smith and Max Muncy back-to-back. Teoscar Hernández followed with an RBI single, Andy Pages hit a run-scoring double and Michael Conforto had a two-run single.

Chicago’s lone run came on Lenyn Sosa‘s RBI single in the third.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Trending