From my countdown to last year's Advocare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway... Last year was the 26th year in a row I attended the races there, and I hope to make it 27 years in a row just 4 weeks from now!
Top 30 Memories from 26 Years of Race Weekends at Atlanta Motor Speedway
#28: Steve Grissom’s Fiery Wreck in the Old Turn 3, March 1997
Everybody knows racing is dangerous, and we’ve seen more serious wrecks at Atlanta Motor Speedway than I care to talk about, but this story is a case where the wreck looked horrible, but there was a happy ending.
In 1997, we were there for one of the worst-looking crashes I’ve ever seen, when Steve Grissom hit the inside wall of what was then the entry to turn 3. Look for “Steve Grissom flip at Atlanta 1997” on You Tube if you want to see it. This was the last race on the old track configuration, when it was a real oval (it is now a “quad-oval”) and the track was flipped, with the pits and finish line on what is now the backstretch. Jimmy Spencer got turned as a pack of cars was going down the old backstretch toward turn 3, and Grissom tried to turn left to miss him, got out of control and hit the inside retaining wall trunk first at probably ~180mph. The rear end of the car, which holds the gas tank, was ripped completely off and his car flipped over and landed on its roof at the bottom of turn 3. The gas tank, however, flew out of the back of the car and landed near the outside wall and got run over by another car. So added to the horrible wreck was a huge fire that erupted when the gas tank exploded. We were in our normal spot on the exact opposite side of the track, but could easily see the fire. It looked like one of the Air Force flyover jets dropped a bomb on turn 3. The video shows that he actually broke the concrete barrier when his car backed into it. The race was red-flagged (stopped) for almost an hour so that crews could repair the track and the wall. Somehow, Steve only had a busted up ankle, and was otherwise fine.
Everybody knows racing is dangerous, and we’ve seen more serious wrecks at Atlanta Motor Speedway than I care to talk about, but this story is a case where the wreck looked horrible, but there was a happy ending.
In 1997, we were there for one of the worst-looking crashes I’ve ever seen, when Steve Grissom hit the inside wall of what was then the entry to turn 3. Look for “Steve Grissom flip at Atlanta 1997” on You Tube if you want to see it. This was the last race on the old track configuration, when it was a real oval (it is now a “quad-oval”) and the track was flipped, with the pits and finish line on what is now the backstretch. Jimmy Spencer got turned as a pack of cars was going down the old backstretch toward turn 3, and Grissom tried to turn left to miss him, got out of control and hit the inside retaining wall trunk first at probably ~180mph. The rear end of the car, which holds the gas tank, was ripped completely off and his car flipped over and landed on its roof at the bottom of turn 3. The gas tank, however, flew out of the back of the car and landed near the outside wall and got run over by another car. So added to the horrible wreck was a huge fire that erupted when the gas tank exploded. We were in our normal spot on the exact opposite side of the track, but could easily see the fire. It looked like one of the Air Force flyover jets dropped a bomb on turn 3. The video shows that he actually broke the concrete barrier when his car backed into it. The race was red-flagged (stopped) for almost an hour so that crews could repair the track and the wall. Somehow, Steve only had a busted up ankle, and was otherwise fine.
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