Is Atlanta the next track to pay price of indifference?

It's up to you, Atlanta.

The viability of Atlanta Motor Speedway as a two-race Sprint Cup venue is in your hands. Another race at the big 1.5-mile track in Hampton is upon us and, as usual, everybody's going to be interested to see the crowd. Word is, the weather Sunday will be nice, sunny and in the 70s, surely good news for a facility that's dealt with more than its share of meteorological woes through the years. The track will have more people on hand to accommodate what they hope will be a strong walk-up crowd. The fall weekend has been moved to the Sunday before Labor Day, a high holy day for NASCAR traditionalists. Even amid a recession, the ingredients for an Atlanta rebound seem to be in place.

• Fireball put track on map in '60
• Young France rules day in '78
• Big names, big moments in '92
• Harvick follows the Intimidator
• 100th race to add to memories
• Get your tickets for Atlanta

Now it's just a matter of people buying tickets, which is never simple, especially in this economic climate. But you would think that of all the tracks used by NASCAR's premier series, Atlanta would emerge as some kind of rallying point for all the purists who claim that their sport is slowly fading away. No question, track management could probably chop 100 miles off the race distances. But given how much the series has changed in the past 15 years, and given all the incessant complaints from old-schoolers about how good it used to be, you'd think race fans from Ringgold to Kingsland would chain themselves to the gates of the old speedway before they'd let another date at another traditional track be taken away from them.

After all, we're not talking about California here. We're talking about a place that's been a cornerstone of NASCAR's premier series since 1960, that's celebrating its 100th Cup-level event this weekend. We're talking about the place where Richard Petty made his last start, where Jeff Gordon made his first start, where Brewster Baker -- OK, maybe it was just Kenny Rogers in a firesuit -- made his big comeback. We're talking about the facility that decided the most epic championship battle in NASCAR history in 1992, and where Kevin Harvick delivered a cathartic victory that made grown men weep three weeks after Dale Earnhardt was killed in 2001. Yes, the place has had some attendance issues, but track president Ed Clark is a stand-up guy who realizes his facility faces some challenges, and doesn't act like they don't exist. The fact that he was willing to give up a Chase date speaks volumes. (Continued)