Atlanta: Recap, Repave, and more

The Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500 was held at Atlanta Motor Speedway Sunday. The big talk around the garage was this being the last race on the old surface.

Shortly before the race, news broke that the track may consider holding off on the repaving. The wrong idea if you ask me.

While the old surfaces create multilane racing, tire fall off, and poor handling race cars, there is a point when the surface is too old.

Atlanta is too old. Strategy almost gets taken out of your hands. There isn't even an option, if you've raced more than 5 laps, you pit. No matter what. If you stay out, you'll find yourself a lap down with no chance to make it up.

Furthermore, these old surface tracks tend to have one car that dominates the entire race. For example, Kevin Harvick leading almost 300 laps of a 325 lap race. It simply allows one car to nail the setup and that's all she wrote.

Not to mention the threat of weather hindering the entire day. A 30 minute shower could kill the chance of any on-track action. This is exactly why Texas was forced to repave this off-season.

Atlanta should not put this off. Repave now. The sooner, the better. Get that new asphalt broken in as soon as possible. It has to happen.

Now, on to the race. No surprise that Harvick dominated the majority of this thing. The guy has lead more laps at Atlanta over the last 4 years than the previous three leaders combined. He just can't manage to finish the job. His last win came in 2001.

Losing this week was entirely of his own accord. Despite his fans trying to blame the 3 for causing that late race caution, which I thought was a weak move by the RCR team, Harvick was the one who got caught speeding on pit road.

Then the race seemed to fall in the hands of Kyle Larson. Until he chose to run a line that he hadn't touched all day. I didn't understand it, but Brad Keselowski may have been too good on the short run.

For a raceday dominated by Harvick, Keselowski grabbed the checkered. Ford is 2/2 on the season. Picking up SHR may have been the best thing to happen to the blue oval in years.