Legends racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway has fueled drivers’ NASCAR successes | Sports

Both made it to NASCAR and both have seen success (especially Elliott, who won the 2020 NASCAR Cup championship and is currently the Cup points leader) but neither were able to win at Atlanta Motor Speedway — until the July 9-10 race weekend.

On Saturday, Hill (a Douglas County native) won the Xfinity race and then Elliott capped the weekend by taking the checkered flag in the Cup race on Sunday.

“It was really cool to see,” AMS general manager and executive vice president Brandon Hutchison said. “It was so very fun to see two guys that spent so much time racing on our quarter-mile and being successful on our quarter-mile. I’ve always said if you can race and win on our flat quarter-mile Thunder Ring track, you can race and be competitive anywhere. To see Austin Hill and his family on Saturday certainly brought a smile to my face and then again to see Chase in victory lane on Sunday in the Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart made what was already a great weekend even better.”

For the two Georgia drivers to win on their home track was the culmination of goals they both had when they were kids.

“When you’re racing out here on the quarter-mile you want to make it,” Elliott said. “You want to race on the big track; that was obviously the goal. That’s I think what’s always in the back of your mind. A lot of stuff has to go your way to get here and to have an opportunity.”

Going back to the March race weekend, former Thursday Thunder drivers have won four of five NASCAR races at AMS. In March, Corey Heim won the Camping World Truck Series race while William Byron won the Cup race.

Elliott raced at Thursday Thunder from 2007 to 2009 competing in the Bandolero Bandits division in 2007 (winning two races), Legends Young Lions in 2008 and Legends Semi-Pro in 2009.

Hill competed in Thursday Thunder from 2004 to 2012, winning a total of 12 races. He won the Legends Pro Division championship in 2009 and Atlanta Motor Speedway’s Winter Flurry championship in 2011.

Byron raced just one season in Thursday Thunder but it was a memorable one as he won the 2013 Legends Young Lions championship. That year, he won four races, had nine top-fives while finishing outside the top five only once.

Heim raced in Thursday Thunder in 2016 and 2017, winning the Legends Pro Division in 2017 with two wins and nine top-fives. 

Legends racing a stepping stone to NASCAR

The success that former Thursday Thunder drivers are having in NASCAR can only help the Legends of Georgia program at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hutchison said.

“For such a long time, the Legends program has been a great stepping stone,” Hutchison said. “You go from quarter-midgets to Bandoleros, from Bandoleros to Legends, from Legends to late models, from late models to hopefully into a Truck and so on and so forth.”

One of many drivers who came up through racing that way is Douglasville’s Mason Massey, who races in the Xfinity series. Massey is coming off a ninth-place finish in New Hampshire.

Massey came from a family of dirt track racers and he first started going to races at the Seven Flags Speedway dirt track in Douglas County.

“By the time I was 4, I was begging my dad for a car and he finally bought me a quarter-midget,” he said in an July 20 interview on SiriusXM’s The Morning Drive show.

He started racing at 5 and then moved on to Bandolero and Legends cars at AMS.

Massey raced in Thursday Thunder from 2005 to 2016, winning several championships. He won the 2008 Bandolero Bandits championship, the 2007 Young Lions championship, and the 2012 and 2016 Pro championship. He also won the 2012 Winter Flurry Pro championship.

“Me and Austin Hill actually shared a shop in Bandoleros and Legends so we kind of grew up in the same area,” Massey said.

One of the big breaks of his career was racing late models for the Elliott family and he actually filled in for Chase when he started racing the NASCAR K&N Series.

“It was a good opportunity for me,” he said.

Another recent NASCAR winner who came up through the Thursday Thunder program Chandler Smith, of Talking Rock, who won his second Truck Series race on July 23 in Pocono.

“Chandler Smith grew up racing here,” Hutchison said. “Of the successful drivers (in Thursday Thunder), Chandler was no doubt the most competitive 8, 9, 10-year old racer that I’ve ever seen in my life and I’ve seen some. Chandler Smith, at 8-years old, a mess-up on the race track would ruin his day.”

Smith raced at Thursday Thunder from 2011 to 2014, winning three straight Bandits championships from 2012 to 2014. He also won the 2013 Winter Flurry championship.

During the recent race weekend at AMS, USA Network did a segment on NASCAR drivers who came up through the Legends program at AMS.

“The majority of these racers have been racing all of their life and for USA to take the time to do a piece on grassroots racing, specifically the talent and success our Legends program has produced, it can do nothing but help,” Hutchison said. “If you want to be the best and compete at the highest level with the best in the world a really good way to try to do that is emulate what they’ve done. So many of the people in the NASCAR circuit right now have come out of the Legends series. It’s definitely proven itself…it’s a great place to come and cut your teeth and get ready for that next level.”

Many NASCAR drivers have come through the Legends program at AMS with the first three being Reed Sorenson, Joey Logano and David Ragan. All three made it to the Cup Series.

“Reed was someone who was very, very good at a young age, won a lot of races,” Hutchinson said. “Reed was another one you knew just by watching some moves he would make on this quarter mile track that he had the ‘it’ factor. And he took that a long, long way and made it to the top. It was fun to watch his career for sure.”

Of the three, Logano has been the most successful, winning the NASCAR Cup championship in 2018.

“Joey was extremely competitive,” Hutchison said. “Joey was extremely talented. Joey expected to win every time and when Joey didn’t win, he was hard on himself, his crew was hard on him, and he knew what his expectations were. That’s rare. A lot of race car drivers want to win. Not a lot of 8, 9, 10-year olds come to the race track having put expectations on themselves because they know they can win and they’re that good. Joey, as a kid, was very mature in what he knew he wanted for his race career.”

Some other Thursday Thunder alumni who went on to NASCAR and other series include Chris Buescher, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon, Drew Dollar, Ronnie Bassett, Grant Enfinger, Timmy Hill, Hailie Deegan, Hunter Robbins, Max Gresham, the late John Wes Townley, Casey Roderick, Kyle Fowler, Brennan Poole and Jonathan Davenport.

Madeline Crane and Justin Campbell are two former Thursday Thunder drivers who were named to the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program with Crane being named in 2016 and Campbell named last year.

Thursday Thunder has not just been a proving ground for stock car racers but other types of racing as well.

Dylan Murry is currently a sports car driver in the IMSA series.

Sean Rayhall raced late models in USAR Pro Cup but also has Indy cars, sprint cars and sports cars. Some of the series he has raced in include European Le Mans, IMSA SCCA, Indy Lights and World of Outlaws. He’s also been a coach and mentor to up-and-coming sports car racers.

“If you look at the list of drivers who are competing in NASCAR today, have competed in NASCAR in the past or are competing in a higher level of racing, the list would blow you away,” Hutchison said. “It’s incredible the talent that’s come through Atlanta Motor Speedway and racing on our quarter-mile Thunder Ring over the 24 years we’ve been racing Thursday Thunder.”

Legends racing gaining in popularity

The Legends of Georgia program is seeing a resurgence, Hutchison said, as car counts in this summer’s Thursday Thunder series hovered around 100 for much of the season.

“Legends at this point in 2022 is enjoying very similar to what we’re seeing in NASCAR…a resurgence,” he said. “It’s definitely trending up. We’ve got more competitors on a weekly basis, more families in our garage that we had last year…and last year we had more than the year before that. We’re seeing an upward trend over the past five years or so and that continues the Legends and Bandolero racing in Georgia at Atlanta Motor Speedway is strong very strong. We’re probably the second-strongest program in the country, if not the world.”

Hutchison credits much of the Legends of Georgia success to its director, Ken Ragan, former NASCAR driver and father of David Ragan.

“Ken Ragan, our director of Legends of Georgia, is better than anybody else in the world at this job and so we enjoy the fruits of his labor but the state of Bandolero and Legends racing is strong,” Hutchison said.

Hutchison also stressed Thursday Thunder is becoming more diverse and more young fans are coming to the races.

“Our industry is more inclusive than it’s ever been before,” he said. “We have diversified ourselves more so in the past four years than in a very, very long time. You’re seeing that in the grandstands at our events and you’re seeing that on the race track with our Bandolero and Legends cars series. We have attracted a younger set of race fans and a lot of those race fans want to get behind the wheel of a race car rather than get out on the soccer field or get out on the football field. It’s fun to see.”