Tracking tracks: Numbers in Atlanta grandstands could shape grand plans

For the second time in the last three NASCAR races there will be as much attention on the grandstands as on the track this Sunday.

Atlanta Motor Speedway's Kobalt Tools 500 needs to draw a solid crowd or the Georgia track could lose one of its two Sprint Cup races as early as next season.

Like Auto Club Speedway, AMS has a parent company that is looking to shift races around in 2011 and 2012 and needs a date from an existing venue in order to do so. Speedway Motorsports Inc. owns Atlanta while International Speedway Corporation operates ACS and both organizations are looking to spread to other facilities.

It appears SMI has been cleared to bring a Cup date to the Kentucky Speedway, now that pending legal action by the former ownership group against NASCAR has been settled. The latest court ruling, siding with NASCAR and its practice of awarding race dates -- which was contended by Kentucky's management group -- paves the way for head honcho Bruton Smith to fulfill his promise of dropping a Cup race at the track. Smith, who acquired the speedway last season, vowed that he would petition NASCAR for a realigned date to bring to the Bluegrass State, harvesting that coveted commodity from an existing track.

Atlanta has been in the bulls-eye for several years due to the track's less than stellar attendance record. While last Labor Day weekend's night race -- the first for the track -- drew an impressive crowd, the annual spring event has struggled to sell tickets for years.

Should that trend continue on Sunday, most believe it will seal the deal of Atlanta becoming a one-race track and Kentucky will inherit its second weekend.

Track exec Bruton Smith would like to get Kentucky on the Cup schedule. (Getty Images)

ISC intends to follow a similar path to bring a second race to Kansas Speedway to coincide with the track's latest improvement, a multi-million dollar hotel and casino complex built on speedway grounds. The complex is expected to be operational in 2012 and a new race would correspond to that target date.

After struggling to fill its seats for two races, the much-maligned Fontana track would seem to make the most sense as the one losing a date among ISC's portfolio, although tiny Martinsville Speedway, which has the smallest seating capacity and is in one of the tiniest markets on the schedule, is also a possibility.

Throw into the schedule mix the oncoming conflict between the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500 and there will be even more of a change on the schedule front coming. When the NFL adds one or two more regular season games to its slate, the Super Bowl will shift back at least a week and be held on what has been the traditional Daytona 500 date.

NASCAR will certainly not want to engage in that battle and reports are the sanctioning body has already slid next year's 500 back a week in anticipation of the potential NFL move with a tentative February 20th date set in 2011.

However it shakes out, there will indeed be a new look to the NASCAR calendar as early as next year. It remains to be seen which tracks -- and fans -- are winners and losers in the aftermath.

Garage chatter

•  The legal wheels continue to turn in the NASCAR world. The former Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI) team was sued by the Seaport Group financial firm and accused of reneging on a deal to sell the firm a $3.25 million claim in General Motors Corp.'s bankruptcy. A lawsuit was filed on February 25 in a New York federal court. And Rusty Wallace's Nationwide Series team is owed more than a half million dollars by former sponsor US Fidelis. Rusty Wallace Racing is among the 20 creditors with claims against the now-bankrupt company with $535,439.18 owed to the team, which sponsored Steve Wallace and Brendan Gaughan for the 2009 Nationwide Series season.

•  Less than two weeks before the 2010 IRL season begins, Versus Network and DirecTV still do not have an agreement, which means millions of potential homes will not be able to view series telecasts again this season. The Indy year begins in Brazil on March 14.

•  One of the IRL's rising stars is currently out of a ride. Graham Rahal was informed only weeks ago that Newman-Haas Racing would field only a single-car effort in 2010 unless sponsorship could be found. The son of racing legend Bobby Rahal carried McDonald's funding last season.

•  Kasey Kahne's future at Richard Petty Motorsports didn't receive a vote of confidence in Las Vegas with the driver of the No. 9 Ford saying "if I don't feel like we're gonna be able to run with the Hendrick cars for the next three or four years, then I've got to make a change. If I feel like we can, then I'm gonna stay right where I'm at." Kahne would be a free agent after his contract expires with RPM at the end of the season.

•  The repair work at Daytona International Speedway appears to have been a success with the turn one and two pothole-patching holding up well over the track's recent Bike Week activities. Daytona President Robin Braig is confident the patch will serve its purpose when NASCAR returns in July. "We don't anticipate any other issues with our track surface," Braig said.