Atlanta Motor Speedway president and general manager Ed Clark said Friday that the track has had no discussions with Auto Club Speedway of Southern California about swapping each track's respective fall race date.
An internet report earlier Friday indicated that the two tracks could exchange race dates, giving the track formerly known as California Speedway a race in the Chase for the championship and Atlanta a race during Labor Day weekend.
"I don't know where that's coming from," Clark said. "We'd certainly have to take a look at it and have to talk with our fans and employees and get their views on it.
"We'd have to at least look at it. If it would be a win-win deal for both sides, it would make sense."
California Speedway has struggled with ticket sales since being given a second race weekend, the Labor Day date previously held by Darlington since the track's first running of the Southern 500 in 1950. Darlington's final Labor Day race was in 2003.
Giving California a date in the Chase would give the track a chance to boost its slumping ticket sales while Atlanta getting race on Labor Day weekend would bring back, to a degree, the Southern 500.
Moving the Southern 500 weekend away from Darlington and North Carolina Speedway losing both of its race dates have angered numerous fans. Moving the date back to a track in the south would likely enhance NASCAR's initiative of reaching out to its core fan base.
"There has been a lot of talk about that weekend since it left Darlington," Clark said. "It would be a feather in the sport's cap to bring it back."
Clark said that while ticket sales are close to what they were two weeks before last March's race, a good amount of buzz is in the air thanks to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s strong showing during Speedweeks at Daytona in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports.
"Since Daytona, we've had a lot more people interested than we have had in the past two years," Clark said.
A lot of fans were interested Monday, when the track sold 1,000 tickets for $12, the number of Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman, as part of a promotion. The demand for tickets, which sold out in six minutes, was so great that the track's phone lines and Web site shut down after being overloaded with fans trying to purchase tickets.
"That turned out to be pretty interesting," Clark said. "It turned out to be one of our better promotions."
