2005 Golden Corral 500


The 2005 Golden Corral 500 was a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race held on March 20, 2005, at Atlanta Motor Speedway, in Hampton, Georgia. Contested over 325 laps on the speedway, it was the 4th race of the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season. Carl Edwards of Roush Racing won the race, the first of his career.

Background

Atlanta Motor Speedway is a track in Hampton, Georgia, south of Atlanta. It is a quad-oval track with a seating capacity of 111,000. It opened in 1960 as a standard oval. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval. The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit.

Race statistics

  • Time of race: 3:29:18
  • Average speed:
  • Pole speed:
  • Cautions: 8 for 40 laps
  • Margin of victory: 0.028 seconds
  • Lead changes: 27
  • Percent of race run under caution: 12.3%
  • Average green flag run: 31.7 laps