Nascar race weekend...Deep South Racing

KOBALT TOOLS 500 WEEKEND PIT NOTES

Friday, March 5, 2010

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AMS ADDING TICKET SELLERS: With a forecast calling for sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 60s, Atlanta Motor Speedway President Ed Clark has called in the reinforcements, adding a slew of ticket sellers to handle what he expects to be a tremendous walk-up crowd for Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

            Tickets start at $39 and can be purchased by calling (877) 9-AMS-TIX, visiting the Atlanta Motor Speedway Ticket Office or by going online towww.atlantamotorspeedway.com.

Tickets purchased online at www.atlantamotorspeedway.com can even be printed out at home, providing fans with the ultimate in ticket buying convenience.

GOTTA LOVE AN OLD TRACK: Clint Bowyer has a message for Ed Clark: Don’t change a thing. With 13 years of wear on its surface, Atlanta Motor Speedway is at its raciest, Bowyer said.

            “This is an awesome race track,” Bowyer said. “As a race car driver, you look for a race track with multiple grooves. It’s a lot of fun to race on these older race tracks, slippin’ and slidin’, run high, run low, run in the middle… whatever it takes to find grip. You can do that here.”

BODINE BACK IN SPOTLIGHT: It’s been six years since Geoffrey Bodine has raced at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but he’s jumped back into the fray big time this weekend.

            In addition to running Saturday’s E-Z-GO 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, Bodine will be the Grand Marshal for tonight’s Atlanta 150 NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour race. All that follows Bodine’s highly-successful trip to the Olympics, where his Bo-Dyn bobsleds helped the Americans clinch two medals: gold for the four-man team and bronze for the women’s two-man team.

            “Just to be part of the Olympics, knowing the whole country is cheering and the whole world is watching … I’m proud, overwhelmed, in awe,” Bodine said.

            He’s also itching to get back on the track. Retuning to Atlanta seems fitting for Bodine, who knows the track intimately after turning the fastest lap in AMS history 13 years ago. That fast lap – 197.478 mph, 28.074 seconds – still stands as the track record.

            “That was a long time ago; the conditions have changed, the cars have changed, the track has changed … everything has changed,” Bodine said Friday, reminiscing about that record-setting day in November 1997. “I wish I could go out there and go that fast today, but it’ll never happen. That was a once-in-a-lifetime day. What was I thinking? Oooh, you could feel that car want to break loose. It was way on the edge, but it felt so good.”

            Now 60, Bodine acknowledges that he’s too old to be a desired commodity in NASCAR, but he’s thrilled to be back in the driver’s seat nonetheless, hoping to parlay this race into a couple more.

            “I’m 60 years old,” Bodine said. “I know I don’t look like it, don’t feel it, don’t act it. It’s very hard for someone my age to get a ride. But I’m not retired.”