Atlanta Motor Speedway Gets a (Controversial) Fresh Repave with the Help of Trimble Tech

In 2021 a controversial decision was made to repave the racetrack at Atlanta Motor Speedway. While some fans and drivers didn’t think a repave was necessary for one of NASCAR’s oldest surfaces, the transformation would create pack racing on an intermediate oval – something not done before.

Transforming an over twenty-year-old, worn track into the highest banked intermediate track in racing is no easy feat and required a high level of precision.

Given the important roles road surface and grading plays in races, this transformation could only be trusted to an expert. That expert was Duncan-Parnell customer Tony Harper and his company Line & Grade. As an expert on road and surface building, he’s been involved in many NASCAR track reconfigurations.

Headquartered in Acworth, Georgia, Line & Grade typically does a lot of work related to road and bridge layouts, including projects with the Department of Transportation. In addition to this type of work though, Tony has carved out a unique niche assisting with NASCAR track reconstructions.

It all started in 1997, when Tony became a part of the first reconfiguration of the AMS track. Line & Grade was contracted to work on the bleachers when Tony’s grading acumen caught the track owners’, Speedway Motor Sports, attention. They leveraged him to help with repaving and reconfiguring the track and asked Tony for his suggestions on the grade design – the rest is history. Line & Grade was part of this project that reconfigured the AMS track from an oval to a quad-oval, which received high praise from fans and drivers upon its debut.

Since then, along with the typical jobs that keep Line & Grade busy in Georgia, Tony has also worked on multiple NASCAR projects around the country. From the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway to the Darlington Raceway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Line & Grade has played a key role in the repaving and reconfiguration of many tracks.

You can imagine that on roads like these the accuracy is paramount. For Tony’s work, measurements have to be very accurate, and the timelines can be strict.

For these jobs, Tony trusts Trimble. Prior to Trimble, Line & Grade utilized other robot brands – however, they were prone to chasing cars, shooting barrels and were just an overall “nightmare” in busy areas, according to Tony. After asking around in the industry, Tony was pointed towards Trimble, eventually leading him to Duncan-Parnell and geospatial sales representative, Mark Russell.

Using the Trimble S9 Robotic Total Station along with the Spectra Ranger 3 and MT1000 prism, Tony and his team are able to get much higher accuracy and complete work faster. The difference was obvious according to Tony, “The accuracy with Trimble was much better. With Trimble you have the option of using a passive or active prism. When you use an active prism, it doesn’t lock onto taillights or get distracted which saves us a lot of time.”

For this most recent repaving at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, Tony relied on his Trimble tools. This will be the first time an intermediate NASCAR track has banking over 24 degrees, and it was critical that the final surface was very smooth. To ensure accuracy, Tony would have a control network with a point every 600 feet – even just a quarter of an inch is too much tolerance on a project like this. Using Trimble tools, the contractors used machine control on the entire project. The equipment contains all of the job parameters and communicates that with other tools in order to obtain the right grading on the pavement.

After over two decades since his first track repaving, Tony continues to be a valuable resource for NASCAR. His expertise, combined with the accuracy and efficiency of Trimble tools, plays a big role in making the tracks NASCAR fans know and love possible.