This past weekend, a post on X made its rounds in the NASCAR community. The post claimed that a popular track would soon receive the “Atlanta treatment.” Using clues and information, what track could this be?
The original post comes from Wookie Drives on X. The post claimed that a “popular intermediate track that consistently puts on good racing” will soon receive the controversial “Atlanta treatment.”
NASCAR fans soon panicked about what intermediate track this could be. Most feared it would be NASCAR-owned Kansas Speedway or even Speedway Motorsports-owned Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The “Atlanta treatment” refers to the renovations that Atlanta Speedway received to convert the 1.540-mile oval into a superspeedway with a racing-style track. Fans have had mixed opinions on this style of racing due to the high rate of caution or single-file racing.
Since Atlanta’s renovation, there have been many rumors about what track could or even will receive this type of change in the future. All of which have yet to come true.
Kansas, which has had some of the best racing of the Next Gen era, would be particularly hard hit for shifting to this style of racing. Fortunately, this post had little to no legitimate backing, and that was until a response from a NASCAR director reignited the conversation.
The next day, Mike Forde, NASCAR’s Managing Director of Racing Communications, responded to this post, saying that he “can at least confirm that this isn’t happening for any #NASCAR-owned tracks.” That means that it will not be a track like Homestead or Kansas.
That does, however, mean that the full fleet of SMI-owned intermediates are technically on the table. The list of SMI-owned intermediate tracks includes:
The original post claims to make it seem as if it’s an active track, so Kentucky, which has not hosted a NASCAR race since 2020, can be taken off the board. For the remaining four, let’s compare their on-track action and popularity to the clues given by the original poster.
Nashville seems like an unlikely yet not often talked about option in the SMI fleet for this change. The track is unlike almost any other intermediate in NASCAR; at 1.33 miles, Nashville is on the border of being considered an intermediate.
While Nashville is popular, with frequently packed grandstands and decent racing, its shape and size would perhaps make it a costly challenge to convert into the superspeedway hybrid currently used by Atlanta. For example, unlike its 1.5-mile SMI brethren, Nashville has a mere 14 degrees of banking, half of Atlanta’s current 28.
When this post first went viral, many fans were worried about the track in question being Charlotte Motor Speedway. As the jewel of SMI’s track lineup, Charlotte set the benchmark for intermediate quad-oval tracks. Its design is reflected in its counterparts in Texas, Las Vegas, and Atlanta, and it consistently puts on quality racing.
While we can’t rule it out completely, shifting this icon of 1.5-mile tracks into a superspeedway-style track would be a landmark decision by SMI. While it is a candidate to do so, the backlash SMI would receive from such a dramatic decision alone could be enough to prevent this.
While most fans oppose the idea of Kansas or Charlotte switching to the Superspeedway racing format, TMS might be the one track where fans would be okay with this change. Since the track’s reconfiguration in 2017, TMS has been the most loathed track amongst NASCAR fans. When SMI first unveiled the new Atlanta, many fans predicted this was Texas’ future.
However, since last spring, some fans have been on the fence about converting the track, perhaps opting to see how it races going forward. That being said, based on the standards set by the original post, the track is not “popular” by any means, and the racing is spotty at best.
Most fans reacting to this post are citing Las Vegas as the track in question. The track opened in 1996 and has had an on-again, off-again relationship with popularity among NASCAR fans. However, since the introduction of the NASCAR Next Gen car, the track has, for the most part, been a hit with fans.
While it doesn’t produce Kansas or Homestead levels of race weekend hype, the racing is consistently solid, and the finishes are attention-grabbing. That being said, there is a rumor that NASCAR could host the 2027 championship race in Las Vegas. Could such a dramatic reconfiguration harm their candidacy?
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