The Atlanta race proved to be a beautiful day, as many meteorologist predicted, especially for winner Kurt Busch, who lead 234 of the 330 scheduled laps.
Despite the beautiful weather, the attendance wasn’t so beautiful. The attendance is one of two things that sparked conversation and news online after (and during) Sunday’s race.
Atlanta Motor Speedway is not known to have a sellout with either of their two races, but the race track is usually full come race day, or close. With the economy the way it is, NASCAR fans can’t afford to attend races.
Granted, AMS, along with other tracks, have reduced ticket prices in an effort to help ticket buyers. On Sunday, however, there were patches of empty seats all around. Many of the drivers took notice of the emptiness and were baffled.
“This place should be packed,” said Jeff Gordon after first hearing about the small crowd and then getting of view of the lack of fans in the stands.
Carl Edwards agreed with Gordon, “This is one of the best tracks, if not the best track we go to as far as competition.”
Although AMS and NASCAR officials said attendance was just over 94,000, many say the attendance was far less. Only time will tell if the economy effects attendance at other tracks become to dissipate.
A topic of conversation that had more discussion was the crew member who chased a runaway tire across the grass while the race was still green.
On lap 67, during a series of green-flag pit stops, Jimmy Watts, gas man for Marcos Ambrose’s No. 47 Ford, chased the tire into the grass as it got away from the crew members after the pit stop. NASCAR immediately called a caution for the incident with Watts putting himself in harms way if a car came through the grass. The caution also put a majority of the field a lap down.
Watts said he went on instinct and couldn’t believe he did such a thing. He was immediately suspended from the race and on Tuesday NASCAR suspended him from the next four races (Bristol, Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix) in violation of NASCAR rules. He was placed on probation until Dec. 31.
Crew chief Frank Kerr was also placed on probation until Dec. 31 for violation of section 9-4-A (crew chief assumes responsibility for the actions of the team).
Although the action by Watts may have been on instinct, he put himself, his team and all the drivers and crew members at risk. The punishment may be harsh, but to NASCAR and many others it seems fair and justifiable.
Don’t miss:
From Bristol
- Sprint Cup qualifying, Friday, March 20, at 3:30 p.m. on SPEED
- Scotts Turf Builder 300 (Nationwide race), Saturday, March 21, at 2 p.m. on ABC
- Food City 500 (Sprint Cup race), Sunday, March 22, at 1:30 p.m. on FOX
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