A 1.54-mile-long track with superspeedway characteristics—it looks like NASCAR drivers were unable to handle the reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway track. With around a dozen cautions during the RAPTOR King of Tough 250 Xfinity Series race, growing concerns over the safety of the Atlanta track have plagued the drivers and their teams.
In fact, after last week’s race, Xfinity driver Justin Allgaier said that he feels like the reconfiguration has completely ruined the field. In a video posted on Twitter by Dustin Long of NBC, Allgaier said, “After the reconfiguration of this, to me, it’s completely ruined this place. […] We ran maybe 20 green-flag laps before halfway. […] We definitely need to go back to the drawing board and figure something out.”
#NASCAR … Justin Allgaier on Atlanta Motor Speedway: “After the reconfiguration of this place … it’s completely ruined this place.” pic.twitter.com/4vDdFsTQX9
— Dustin Long (@dustinlong) March 18, 2023
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As this issue became a hot topic of discussion in the days following the race, it was taken up by the co-hosts of the Door Bumper Clear podcast.
NASCAR spotters discuss the reconfiguration of the Atlanta Motor Speedway
While discussing last week’s races at Atlanta, NASCAR spotters Brett Griffin, TJ Majors, and Freddie Kraft discussed their concerns about the revamped track. Explaining how Allgaier said that after Saturday’s race, he was kind of embarrassed for the sport, Door Bumper Clear’s co-host Casey Boat asked Kaulig Racing spotter Brett Griffin to share his views on the Xfinity driver’s comments.
Agreeing that the reconfiguration has actually affected the sport, Griffin shared how he hates the media talks around it. He said, “Man, Justin’s comments at this point in the day were actually spot on. And Logano was in the booth with Suarez, and Logano immediately, basically went into salesman mode. Which I told you guys last week on the show I hate.
“I hate when TV tries to sell me on how great it is.
“Your job is to basically do the show and tell me what you think. But for me, his (Justin’s) comments right there were spot on. ‘Cause, it was embarrassing.”
Here’s why Brett Griffin wants the old Atlanta track back
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Apart from agreeing with Allgaier’s comments, Brett Griffin also stated that he appreciated the old track more. He said, “I mean we just watched a truck race that had eleven-ish cautions in it. And here we are seven cautions into stage one…it felt like it in the Xfinity race. So, I agree with Justin that we ruined the place because I loved old Atlanta.”
Furthermore, Griffin also revealed the little details that he loved about the old track. He shared, “I love tire wear, I love watching the guys work the seams, watching the guys work the top, getting big runs off two, running the bottom of three and four, the big bump you’d hit coming out of four.
“I appreciated all those things as a race fan and to me, this (the reconfigured track) was not a great look for the sport, unfortunately.”
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Apart from the Xfinity series, the Cup race in Atlanta too had chaotic moments. Even though the first two stages were fairly clean, a huge wreck during the third stage frustrated a lot of drivers and fans.
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