NASCAR: Atlanta Motor Speedway among next few races

HAMPTON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – NASCAR announced Thursday Atlanta Motor Speedway is among the tracks that will host racing events in the near future.

The sport, which hasn’t held an event since the March 8 Cup Series race at Phoenix, returns with a Cup Series race on Sunday, May 17 at Darlington Speedway.

The May 17 race at Darlington, which will be called The Real Heroes 400, is the first of seven events in 11 days across the sport’s top three series.

The Xfinity Series will race at Darlington on Tuesday, May 19, followed by a second Cup Series race there on Wednesday, May 20.

The Cup Series will race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 24. The Xfinity Series will race there on Monday, May 25, and the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series will race there on Tuesday, May 26. A second Cup Series race will be held at Charlotte on Wednesday, May 27.

Fans will not be allowed at any of the Darlington or Charlotte races.

Atlanta hosting racing in June

NASCAR announced its next set of events on Thursday, and Atlanta Motor Speedway is among the hosts.

The Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series and Xfinity Series will both race at Atlanta on June 6, and the Cup Series will race at Atlanta on Sunday, June 7.

Here’s the schedule of events after Darlington and Charlotte:

• Saturday, May 30 – Xfinity Series at Bristol Motor Speedway
• Sunday, May 31 – Cup Series at Bristol Motor Speedway
• Saturday, June 6 – Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series and Xfinity Series at Atlanta
• Sunday, June 7 – Cup Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway
• Wednesday, June 10 – Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway
• Saturday, June 13 – Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series and Xfinity Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Sunday, June 14 – Xfinity Series and Cup Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway
• Saturday, June 20 – ARCA Menards Series and Xfinity Series at Talladega Superspeedway
• Sunday, June 21 – Cup Series at Talladega Superspeedway

Atlanta Motor Speedway Executive Vice President and General Manager Brandon Hutchison says the track is excited about hosting its tripleheader weekend on June 6-7 despite fans not being allowed to attend.

“As you know, the announcement today comes with the fact there won’t be fans in the grandstands,” Hutchison said in a Zoom call with media. “I completely understand that our sport was built on the folks that buy tickets and come to our races, so to have to race without them is unfortunate, but for the safety of the competitors and essential workers and the community that we live in, the decision was made to run without fans.”

A NASCAR news release said fans won’t be allowed at any of the races between May 30 and June 21.

“As we prepare for our return to racing at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, the industry has been diligent in building the return-to-racing schedule,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer. “We are eager to expand our schedule while continuing to work closely with the local governments in each of the areas we will visit. We thank the many government officials for their guidance, as we share the same goal in our return – the safety for our competitors and the communities in which we race.”

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