By Joe Dunn
With three NASCAR race weekends in the books, it has been a very, very wet season so far. Rains plagued Daytona’s traditional Speed Week resulting in the cancellation of Nationwide Series qualifying.
Then onto California, where the rain again threatened the schedule causing teams to change the way they prepared for qualifying and race setups. The third week we traveled to Las Vegas where rain again reared it’s ugly head as the race was held up again for rain. At Las Vegas the temperatures were exceptionally cold to add more discomfort for fans and competitors alike.
So here we are, just days away from the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and on Tuesday, the Atlanta Airport was on delay for most of the day for snow. Atlanta was not alone, as areas around Charlotte were recording up to 5” of snow. For long time fans of AMS, the thoughts of a snow covered race track were not hard to conjure up.
Forget those worries, because our favorite ‘Unofficial Twitter Meteorologist for NASCAR’, Brian Neudorff of News8 in Rochester, NY ( or as he is better known on twitter NASCAR_WXMAN) says this will be the ‘Best Weather Weekends of the Season’. As Brian tells us “ The storm system that brought snow to Atlanta and then into the Carolinas and a strong area of high pressure will move in. This will give absolute gorgeous weather to the Southeastern US through the end of the week into the weekend” If you slept through a lot of freshman science class that all means that there shouldn’t be any sign of rain this weekend.
So, as I look out my window here in Tennessee at the snow that is left from Tuesday’s hit, I am getting ready to head down I-75 to Hampton, Ga. I know from the above forecast that I shouldn’t need my rain gear, but as Brian’s website forecast shows http://ow.ly/1dBHL , it is still going to be a bit nippy at night, dipping to 25˚ on Saturday night. The daytime highs don’t appear to be much better than Las Vegas, in the high 60’s, but being dry is a huge improvement.
The bottom line folks, is that it will be dry, but don’t forget to pack some warm clothes as it is still winter in these parts. As you already know, the NASCAR Nationwide Series is off this weekend, but if you plan on going early, or if you are already there, Friday evening the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour will run a 150 lap race on the quarter mile track on the front stretch. The modifieds are some of the coolest and fastest cars running outside the big three series. On Saturday, for those attending the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series E-Z-Go 200, it will be followed by a Legends Car event with the Thunder Roadster models, on the quarter mile track. Among the entries for the Thunder Roadster’s is none other than NASCAR Champion Bill Elliot.
All in all, this looks to be a good weekend for the race fans, and the last I heard the track still has tickets available, so if you can, load up the car and join us in Atlanta. For all those twitter fans out there, Jeff Gluck has promised another ‘Tweet Up’ at the track, and I will try to be there this time. In the meantime, follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/OnPitRoad
