Talking to Ed Clark on the phone, you might not think you’re talking to a man who was once the President of one of NASCAR’s premier race tracks. A smooth, southern drawl covers up the wisdom that Clark gained after nearly three decades working in executive roles at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia.
Clark’s interest in the sport came from an uncle, and his interest eventually turned into a job at a local bi-weekly paper in rural Virginia, where Clark covered races before going off to college at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. After he graduated from VT, he got his first job in NASCAR at Bristol Motor Speedway in 1977. “Working in NASCAR is all I’ve done since,” Clark said.
Tennessee also ended up being the home of Clark’s first executive role in the sport. While still working at Bristol, he took up the role of Track Manager of the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in 1979. In 1981, Clark went to his first corporate boardroom, accepting a role at Speedway Motorsports, which wasn’t the behemoth we know today. “At the time, Charlotte Motor Speedway was the only track we held. In 1990, we purchased Atlanta, and in the summer of ‘92, they asked me to come down and be the General Manager,” Clark explained.
“You know, I got to do something that everybody would love to do and got to do something that wasn’t like a job. It was a pleasure to do it day in and day out,” he added.
After a 27-year career at the track, Clark’s last weekend as President was marked on the calendar as March 13-15 of 2020, the track’s traditional tripleheader spring weekend. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, which was ramping up in the U.S. at that point, had other plans.
“The transporters and cars were in the infield. Then we got a call from NASCAR that, hey, you know, we may be changing the plan for the weekend a little bit. A few hours later, the call was that we might be running this race without any fans. So, you know, we kind of went into, how is this going to work? Before we could even get word out about that decision, they called and said that we’re not going to race at all.”
Not only did Clark not get to see the final scheduled race of his tenure, his retirement dinner was also called off.
“Basically, we all packed up and went home, and none of us were there that weekend,” Clark says. “It was the most bizarre thing when we finally did run the race, you know, like so many events that year. We ran it with no fans in the stands, and that was the most bizarre race I ever attended in my life.”
Asking Clark about his favorite moment as AMS President felt redundant, but I thought I’d try my hand anyway. Sure enough, he gave exactly the answer I thought he would.
“That was the race where Bill Elliott and Alan Kulwicki raced head to head for the championship. Those two guys raced and dueled all day long. And it came down to if Bill Elliott had waited one more lap to pit and led one more lap,” Clark said, recounting the infamous story of the 1992 Hooters 500.
“It was one of the greatest championship duels of all time, if not the greatest,” Clark said. “A couple other things were also happening that weekend. A guy named Richard Petty retired, ran his last race. A guy named Jeff Gordon made his very first Cup start. So there were so many storylines that weekend that made it special. The race was great. That buildup to Richard, for me, was like nothing I’d ever seen,” Clark says. “Of course it’s my first race. I’d never done a race in Atlanta before. So many great memories though,” he added.
Ed Clark may not be the flashiest name in NASCAR history, nor the most well-known employee in the history of SMI. His story of working his way up the ladder to the top rung of a premier track, however, is one that can inspire everyone seeking a career in NASCAR.
And it all started at a bi-weekly newspaper in rural Virginia.
