page_title: Atlanta Motor Speedway
section_title: Weather
hierarchical_section_title: Atlanta Motor Speedway / Weather
caption_attribution_description: Damage due to a tornado produced by Hurricane Cindy at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
context_page_description: Atlanta Motor Speedway is a 1.5-mile race track in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Cup Series stock car races since its inauguration in 1960.
  The venue was bought by Speedway Motorsports in 1990. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two intermediate 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, with a new official length of 1.54-mile where before it was 1.522-mile. The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit. It has a seating capacity of 71,000 - 125.000 depending on configuration.
context_section_description: In early September 2004, Atlanta Motor Speedway found another use: it became a shelter for evacuees from Florida fleeing Hurricane Frances. While there were no indoor facilities available, visitors waited out the extremely slow-moving storm parked in their recreational vehicles, after creeping along for hours in traffic on nearby Interstate 75. Atlanta Motor Speedway has also opened their campgrounds to evacuees of Hurricane Irma in 2017, Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Michael in 2018, and Hurricane Dorian in 2019.
  In 2005, the speedway received heavy damage on the evening of July 6, caused by an F2 tornado spawned from the remains of Hurricane Cindy. Roofs and facades were torn off buildings and the scoring pylon was toppled. In 2005 practices began to extend in to Friday night, and shortly afterwards both Cup races began featuring night qualifying. In 2006, the Bass Pro Shops 500 start time was adjusted to guarantee a night finish.
caption: Damage from tornadoes spawned by Hurricane Cindy
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