Sunday 31st July 1960

Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) opened as a standard 1.5 mile (2.4 km) oval track. The opening scenes of the 1980 movie Smokey and the Bandit II were filmed at the track, as were scenes of the 1983 film Stroker Ace. Former US President Jimmy Carter once worked as a ticket taker at the track, and attended several races there as Georgia governor and as US President. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports’ other two 1.5-mile (2.4 km) ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval. The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit.