Per an April 30 announcement, Atlanta Motor Speedway has elected to increase its grandstand capacity to 100% for the NASCAR race weekend headlined by the July 11 Cup Series race.
The announcement marks the first NASCAR facility to announce plans for a full capacity event since the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“As we’ve seen millions across Georgia and the Southeast get vaccinated, public health restrictions have eased and that gives us the green flag to take a big step towards welcoming more people to enjoy race weekend,” AMS Executive Vice President and General Manager Brandon Hutchison said in a release. “Needless to say, we can’t wait to have thousands of fans join us for some thrilling NASCAR action this summer.”
For its first race on the Cup schedule earlier this season, AMS capped attendance at 20,000 tickets sold to accommodate social distancing. While health and safety protocols will continue to be in place, Atlanta can seat over 100,000 people if the July event does indeed does become a sellout.
Ryan Blaney won the Cup race in March.
The Xfinity Series race gets underway Saturday, July 10 at 3 p.m. ET, while the Cup Series runs July 11 at 3:30 p.m. ET. Both races will air on NBCSN.
Never at a loss for words, Zach Gillispie is a young, talented marketing professional from North Carolina who talks and writes on the side about his first love: racing! Since joining Frontstretch in 2018, Zach has served in numerous roles where he currently pens the NASCAR 101 column, a weekly piece delving into the basic nuts and bolts of the sport. Additionally, his unabashedly bold takes meshed with that trademarked dry wit of his have made Zach a fan favorite on the weekly Friday Faceoff panel. In his free time, he can be found in the great outdoors, actively involved in his church, cheering on his beloved Atlanta Braves or ruthlessly pestering his colleagues with completely useless statistics about Delma Cowart.