Stands not an indicator of Atlanta's place in NASCAR

Friday morning brought rain and the kind of dark, oppressive clouds that seem to cling to the skies over Atlanta Motor Speedway. But race day promises sun and meteorological relief, something sorely needed for a racetrack that produces tremendous speeds and tremendous finishes often overshadowed by rows of empty seats.

The metropolitan areas of Atlanta and Los Angeles have more in common than the residents of either city would likely care to admit. Both are freeway-strangled municipalities where two-hour commutes aren't unheard of, and drivers can encounter five lanes of stopped Interstate traffic even at 3 in the morning. Both are fickle sports towns where pro teams often languish in indifference. Both have speedways located far from center cities, and saddled with rotten early-season positions on the NASCAR schedule.

But from an auto racing perspective, there's one key difference: California's relatively sparse crowds catch more heat than the 110-degree temperatures that often accompany the track's Labor Day date, while Atlanta's seem to be treated a little more gently. Although late former NASCAR chairman Bill France Jr. did mention the Hampton, Ga., facility as a possible target of schedule realignment when that plan was unveiled in 2003, nobody's banging the drum for Atlanta to lose a date.

Maybe it's because Atlanta has roughly 32,000 more seats than California, and its non-sellouts likely still attract enough people to fill up the Fontana track. Maybe it's because purists rue the fact that California's second Sprint Cup date came at the expense of two historic facilities, Darlington and Rockingham, while Atlanta -- host to NASCAR races since 1960 -- is one of those older facilities steeped in legend. Or maybe it's because of something the naked eye cannot see, something beyond the racecars and the racetrack and the grandstand seats, something that makes Atlanta as vibrant and productive as any other venue on the schedule.

Atlanta Motor Speedway, despite its location 30 miles south of the city among the open fields of Henry County, is very much the commercial crossroads of NASCAR. A variety of primary and secondary car sponsors, from UPS and The Home Depot to Coca-Cola and Siemens, are based in Atlanta. The 1.54-mile facility out in the red clay hills is their home track. And they make Atlanta a much more important, and in many ways a much more robust, racetrack than those empty seats on Sunday might otherwise suggest.

"You go up to our corporate suites, and walk up and down the concourse," said Greg Walter, Atlanta's vice president for sales, "and you'll find almost every major partner in NASCAR."

From a corporate standpoint, Walter said, Atlanta is on pace to have one of it best spring races ever. Atlanta-based companies like Delta Air Lines, which has no presence anywhere else in NASCAR, entertain at Atlanta. So does former primary car sponsor Georgia-Pacific. So does Gulfstream, the private jet company based three hours away in Savannah. Corporations that want to explore sponsorship opportunities often begin the process by sending executives to Atlanta, behind Miami the biggest city in the eastern United States with a racetrack, and a place with direct flights from anywhere. (Continued)