Updated Atlanta Motor Speedway teased by iRacing’s Greg Hill

A tweet went out on Monday night (or Tuesday morning for all of my European friends) of a picture with no words from the account of Senior Vice President and Executive Producer at iRacing Greg Hill.

At 10:32 p.m. EDT, Hill tweeted that picture of what looked to be scan data for a Speedway Motorsports, Inc. venue, based on their logo on the apron. Further context clues lead us to believe that this is a tease of what is expected to be an updated version of Atlanta Motor Speedway, based on the slice we we’re given.

The re-imagined 1.5-mile oval in Hampton, Georgia made its debut virtually last year on iRacing before construction started over the summer, fall and winter months of 2021. The real-world circuit was ready for racing action earlier this season for the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series to compete upon in March.

In the remodel, the track kept its D-oval shape, but the banking was increased from 24-degrees to 28-degrees in the corners. Most of the track was also narrowed from the wall to the apron.

In effect, the racing became very superspeedway-esque where it was more about keeping the throttle open and maintaining momentum, similar to Daytona or Talladega but on a much smaller scale.

Despite having a virtual version made before the track was completed, iRacing’s tracks are all laser scanned and Atlanta will be no exception. Only the fantasy track of iRacing Superspeedway exists on the service with no scan data as the track does not actually exist.

Of course, they couldn’t scan it until the track was completed. Seeing as we don’t currently have the updated venue meant that the track wasn’t ready in time for the first Atlanta weekend of the season, or the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series event that preceded it.

Thankfully, Atlanta has two NASCAR race weekends this year, and if this is any indication, it should hopefully mean that the track is ready to go for the second. While there’s no new season scheduled until September, that doesn’t mean iRacing hasn’t released mid-season content before and won’t do it again.

Atlanta is but one of two NASCAR venues that is waiting to be released that’s been scanned within the year. Indianapolis Motor Speedway is due for an update, having completely changed a few sections of its infield road course in the past few years and also added a quarter-mile dirt track inside of Turn 3.

Hopefully the new Indy track comes at some point this season as well, hopefully before the NASCAR race weekend at the end of July. For now, its great to see Atlanta in progress. NASCAR will return to Atlanta on the second weekend of July, on the 10th.

We’ll keep our eyes peeled for any further updates surrounding the pavement oval. Do you think we’re going to get it before the next NASCAR race weekend at Atlanta? Let us know what you’re thinking in the comments below!