It looks like an eagle-eyed NASCAR fan has broken news about a potential rebranding of Atlanta Motor Speedway. How does this sound, race fans? EchoPark Speedway… yeah, I’m not too sure either.

This isn’t the first time that a racetrack has had its naming rights sold to a major sponsor in the sport. Marcus Smith and Speedway Motorsports reconfigured Atlanta into one of the best action tracks in the sport. Now, they have reconfigured the name to give EchoPark the rights, it appears.

A fan on Reddit (u/Positive_Action_7539) posted a picture of the grandstands. Where it would normally say “Atlanta Motor Speedway,” it now says “EchoPark Speedway.”

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NASCAR will add two starting spots to the grid for the Xfinity Series race in Mexico City.

The two provisionals will allow the field to be expanded by two entries, but only if needed. It would push the starting grid from 38 to a maximum of 40 teams. NASCAR expects more than 38 teams to make the trip to attempt the race.

NASCAR is calling it the International Provisional. But in a move similar to the creation of the Open Exemption Provisional in the Cup Series, the teams that use the International Provisional will not:

• Be eligible for prize money
• Receive driver or owner points (including in the stages)
• Receive credit for the win or playoff benefits (the second-place finisher will receive first-place points but not receive benefits for the win, such as earning a spot in the playoffs
• Receive playoff points that come with the race win or stage win (the second-place driver in the stage or race will receive the playoff points)

NASCAR visits Mexico City with its Xfinity Series and Cup Series teams June 13-15. It is a return for the Xfinity Series to the country, which last competed in the country in 2008.

As for the Cup Series, which will make its inaugural trip to Mexico City, an Open Exemption Provisional was not requested for the event. A team looking to use the provisional must submit its request 90 days in advance of the event.

McLaren’s Lando Norris has topped first practice at Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix, heading Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in Barcelona.

Friday’s first free practice session in hot conditions was used as a testing ground for a brace of upgrades across most of the teams, as well as the first session in which teams ran stiffer front wings to comply with the FIA’s latest technical directive.

As such, the first half hour of the session was largely run on Pirelli’s hardest C1 compound as teams completed correlation work to trial their new parts and match them with existing simulation data.

Teams also tested steel skid blocks in a bid to find solutions to the grass fires which plagued April’s Japanese Grand Prix, and were believed to be caused by hot sparks coming off the existing titanium skids.

In order to gather data, one car per team trialled the steel skids on Friday, which are believed to be 750 grams heavier and wear quicker.

Home hero Fernando Alonso led the early running on hards before McLaren’s Norris took over. But times started becoming more representative after the halfway mark, as evidenced by Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg temporarily taking second.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

On soft tyres Charles Leclerc took top before being overhauled by Red Bull’s Verstappen and then Norris, whose time of 1m13.718s was over three tenths clear of the world champion’s lap.

Hamilton was third ahead of Ferrari team-mate as the Scuderia trialled substantial updates, with the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri in fifth.

Liam Lawson continued Racing Bull’s competitive trajectory with sixth ahead of Haas man Oliver Bearman and his team-mate Isack Hadjar. Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and Alpine driver Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.

The one-hour opening session ran without major incidents, with Haas stand-in Ryo Hirakawa taking a gravel trip excursion on the latest FP1 outing for Toyota’s WEC driver, this time instead of Esteban Ocon.

The other reserve driver on FP1 duties was F2 frontrunner Victor Martins, who took over Alex Albon’s Williams for the session.

F1 Spanish GP – FP1 results

Rockingham Speedway hosted the NASCAR Truck Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series earlier this year, and is set to be put up for sale after a successful return to the sport.

After its triumphant comeback to NASCAR earlier this year, Rockingham Speedway is on the market. The track was previously left abandoned and in disrepair just a few years ago but has recently made a successful comeback.

NASCAR’s history has been a hot topic in recent weeks with the release of a new documentary series on Amazon Prime Video about Dale Earnhardt. His son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., revealed the moment their relationship shifted and also admitted being taken aback by revelations from his sister, Kelley. She also revealed the pair are fearful of being arrested if they visit his grave, where they are not welcome.

Rockingham is a track where Dale Earnhardt won three times and was also the scene of his seventh and final championship triumph back in 1994. This April, the Rockingham Speedway welcomed back the NASCAR Truck Series after an absence of over a decade. Not only that, but the track also hosted the NASCAR Xfinity Series for the first time since 2004, where Sammy Smith clinched the North Carolina Education Lottery 500 victory.

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The venue saw a change in ownership when Dan Lovenheim snapped it up for $2.8 million in August 2018, embarking on a mission to return the speedway to its former splendor. Now, with success under his belt, Lovenheim is ready to cash in on the North Carolina racing hotspot.

“And the time is right to pass the baton to someone who can take it farther than we can,” he said.

Over the last few years, Rockingham has benefited from upwards of $12 million in infrastructure enhancements, with state government contributing more than $9 million. Lovenheim has sights set on selecting a new owner by July 1 as the sales process gets underway.

The Richmond County, North Carolina property, spanning 250 acres, doesn’t have a listed price just yet. Nonetheless, the next proprietor will inherit a track fresh off a NASCAR revival last month. That Xfinity Series race drew a whopping sell-out crowd exceeding 25,000 and boasted 1.053 million TV viewers tuning in.

While a Cup Series NASCAR event hasn’t been promised for 2026 or 2027 at Rockingham, the speedway’s team holds out hope for featuring in the upcoming seasons’ schedules.

“It gave me a greater smile in doing so,” Lovenheim remarked about listing the racetrack for sale.

“But whether or not this race went off like it did – gangbusters – or it was rained out, still, we’ve taken the facility from weeds growing out of it to the capabilities of having high-level NASCAR races. And that was our goal either way.”