By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

Racing fans have been looking forward to this weekend like baseball fans look forward to opening day.

Starting Thursday, Atlanta Motor Speedway will host the nation's best racers for the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500 weekend. Jeff Gordon won last year's race and is looking to defend his trophy.

Gen. Colin Powell will be the grand marshal for Sunday's race.

The race around the 1.54 quad mile oval combines the speed of Daytona, the competition of Charlotte and the excitement of Bristol. The favorites of both the Busch and Winston Cup series will be on the track this weekend as well as some newcomers from the CART series.

Many CART racers, like John Andretti and Robby Gordon, have joined the stock car series and are learning to handle the differences of racing styles. The main difference between the two styles is that drafting is much more important in stock car racing and will definitely have a bearing on this weekend's race.

Tickets for Friday's qualifying will cost $15. The gates will open at 8 a.m. on all three days and the qualifying race for the Aaron's 312 will begin at 3:30 p.m. The Aaron 312 will be run at 1 p.m. Saturday and the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500 will begin at 1 p.m. Sunday. Ticket. Prices range from $10-$40 for Saturday's race and from $20-$100 for Sunday's race. Call 770-946-4211 or visit www.atlantarace.com on the web to purchase tickets.

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