Three times the field at Atlanta has started with 46 cars. Two of those three races were won by Fred Lorenzen. Fireball Roberts won the first Atlanta race in July of 1960, and he won it from the pole in a Pontiac. The last back-to-back wins at Atlanta was a season sweep by Jimmie Johnson in 2007, but the last five races have seen five different winners. The last time Chevy won a race at Atlanta without winning at least two in a row was in 1991 when Ken Schrader went to Victory Lane in the spring race. From 1995-2000, three men dominated Atlanta. In eleven races, Dale Earnhardt won three times, Jeff Gordon won three times, and Bobby Labonte won four times. The only single-race winner in that time frame was Dale Jarrett in 1997. Bobby won three other times, as well. Dale Earnhardt won nine times at Atlanta, more than anyone else. Ernie Irvan and Jerry Nadeau are both past winners in Atlanta. AMS prohibits devices that generate excessively loud noises, and according to the rules on their website, AMS also reserves the right to judge what constitutes excessively loud noises. Ushers at AMS are referred to as "Grandstand Captains" and can be identified with blue vests and white hats. If you see a blue vest without a white hat, be suspicious. The fastest qualifying lap at AMS was set by Geoff Bodine at 197.478 mph in 1998. The fastest qualifying in IRL at AMS was 224.145 by Billy Boat in 1997. I tell you that just because who doesn't like saying the name Billy Boat? You just said it out loud, didn't you? It's okay, so did I. Bruton Smith purchased the Atlanta Motor Speedway five years before forming Speedway Motorsports, Inc. You can follow AMS on Twitter @amsupdates. A B-52H (also known as the BUFF, an acronym that means Big Ugly Fat Fellow) and a pair of F/A-18E Super Hornets will be doing the fly-over this weekend. The concert before this week's race will be performed by Blackberry Smoke, but apparently has no affiliation with either a cell-phone provider or Tony Stewart. Forecast for the weekend is to be sunny with highs in the 60s. In 2005 an F2 tornado damaged the speedway and knocked down the 50-foot scoreboard tower. There were no injuries, but the main backstretch grandstand originally built in 1960 had to be demolished and replaced. AMS was featured in both Smokey and the Bandit II as well as Stroker Ace. A guy named Mike Helton used to be the track's General Manager, but later went on to another job that you might have heard about. | 
