Atlanta Motor Speedway, once a standard oval track, got a major overhaul before the 2022 season. They boosted the banking in the turns from 24 to 28 degrees and widened the front stretch, aiming to make side-by-side racing more exciting. While that extra 4 degrees might not seem like a lot, it significantly changes how modern stock cars handle the corners.

This overhaul led to Atlanta being labeled as another Superspeedway in NASCAR’s lineup after 7 existing and 4 holding races currently including Auto Club, Pocono, Daytona, and Talladega. But does the reconfiguration of this 1.5-mile quad-oval qualify it as a Superspeedway? NASCAR veteran Dale Earnhardt Jr. isn’t buying it. On DJD’s 575th episode, he took a deep dive into the issue, calling out the NASCAR community for jumping on the Superspeedway bandwagon.

Is the Atlanta track really a Superspeedway?

Besides the reconfiguration, NASCAR wrapped up tweaking the Cup cars for Superspeedway races during the 2022 season after testing them at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Daytona International Speedway. So, the recent Atlanta race had cars with 7-inch spoilers and 510-horsepower engines, just like they do at Daytona and Talladega. Before this, in 2019, NASCAR also had cars add a modified tapered spacer to restrict the horsepower at the Atlanta track. All this, according to NASCAR, was enough for the Superspeedway status. Despite its short length!

However, Dale Earnhardt Jr. disagrees. On Dale Jr. Download, giving more reasons, Junior said, “I don’t think you put it (Atlanta) in Daytona and Talladega category. It isn’t the same. NASCAR and NBC would love to say they are on the same track.

But are they? Not according to the veteran. “What I really get annoyed with is how those terms like a short track, intermediate, one-mile oval, that’s pretty straightforward, superspeedway, those were terms that adhered strictly to a size. They are not just loose terms,” he added.

According to Junior, the term “Superspeedway” is being loosely used while describing the Atlanta track. Tracks have different names because of their sizes. Like, short tracks, tracks that are under one mile, and intermediate tracks, which range between a mile and two miles. All the speedways. Lastly, superpeedways, which are above 2 miles. Like Daytona, which is 2.5 miles, or Talladega, which is even longer at 2.66 miles. This is why Dale Jr. refused to accept Atlanta at 1.5 miles’ length as a Superspeedway.

Jr. kept reiterating his point. He said, “It’s not a Superspeedway. Superspeedway is anything 2 miles and larger. You could consider Michigan a Superspeedway, but I wouldn’t. But definitely, Talladega and Daytona are superspeedways; the rest of the tracks are simply speedways. According to him, a track doesn’t get the status just because it looks like one.

However, that is not the only reason why it’s being called a superspeedway. It’s because Atlanta is using the same package as Daytona and Talladega. The cars have a 510 horsepower engine with a 7-inch rear spoiler as opposed to a Speedway package, where cars have a 670 horsepower engine with a 4-inch spoiler for most tracks, including road courses and short tracks.

So basically, Atlanta Motorspeedway is a track with a speedway length using a Superspeedway package. Maybe a new term needs to be coined for it!

Dale Jr. on the new term “Drafting Tracks”

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Many are now calling the Superspeedways “drafting tracks.”

Majorly because of driving where cars are aided by drafts and vice versa affected if they try to go wide. But this is true for all speedways. How is this different from speedways?

It really isn’t, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. blames the guys, for giving insights and stats.

He said, “There was never a term called this is a drafting track. Like it’s a new term right? That was coined by. I want to put it on the racing insights guys. They had no other way to describe the new Atlanta. The stat guys wanted to say, we need to give stats, if you are an announcer, we need to give you stats on who’s good at these types of races. But this isn’t an intermediate, this isn’t a mile-and-a-half cookie cutter anymore. It’s kind of like Daytona, Talladega, it’s a drafting track so we are gonna call it a drafting track.”

According to Junior, people are comparing the stats of drivers from Daytona and Talladega and predicting who will fare better in Atlanta. “It’s so annoying because now that’s like a new term and now there’s this new statistics been compiled around drivers that are winning races and running well at drafting tracks,” he added.

Do you agree with Dale Earnhardt Jr., or do you think Atlanta can be called a Superspeedway?

Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.