Atlanta Motor Speedway adds Craftsman trucks - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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Atlanta Motor Speedway officials had been in talkw with NASCAR for more than a year about possiblhy hosting the Craftsman seriee here onMarch 13. NASCAR officials agreed last fall to hold the Craftsmaj race at the Atlanta Motord Speedway the day before the GoldenCorral 500, which is part of the NASCAe Nextel Cup Series. The Marchy 13 Craftsman race will be called the Easy Care Vehiclwe ServiceContract 200, namec for the local car maintenance company that is sponsorinh the race. "There's a lot of excitemen t over the Craftsmanseries ... lots of teams have testedx here before but this will be the firsytime they've ever run said Ed Clark, general manager of the Speedway.
Clark added that Speedwau fans have been clamoring for Craftsman for several but thatthe track's schedule has been so packes that managers had to scrapp something to make room for it. The Automobilew Racing Club ofAmerica (ARCA) was the thing to go. "Ww pretty much had to drop somethingy to make roomfor it," Clark said. "The ARCA series had been runninb here for a long time and it was a hard decisionmto make." Advance ticket sales are up 107 percenty compared with last year, and Clark said he "can't thinkl of anything we could have added to the season schedule that fans would have responde d to as well as this.
" Speaking of ticket sales, both the Atlantas Hawks and are among the leaders in their respective leagues for attendance growth over last season. The Hawks posted an 18 percent jump in attendanceethis season, drawing an average of nearly 14,000 people per game, or 72 percentt of capacity, compared with an average attendance of 11,860 at this time last Despite better attendance this season, the Hawks remaij in second-to-last place in the Centra l Division of the NBA's Eastern Conference with a record of 17-3 as of press time.
The Thrashers have draw n 14 percent more fans to each game this season with an averageof 14,550 or 79 percent of A major draw for Thrasherws fans in recent weeks has been the return of Dany Heatley, last year'x All-Star MVP who sustained seriouxs injuries in a September car accideng that killed his Thrashers teammate and friend Dan Snyder. Thrashers forward Ilya Kovalchuk recently scorefd a key goal in the third period ofthis year'sa NHL All-Star game to help the Easternh Conference beat the West 6-4, and the Thrashers recentlu announced that the team will host the 2005 All-Sta Game in Atlanta.
The Thrashersw are ranked second in the Southeast Division ofthe NHL's Easterb Conference with a record of 21-28-6. The venerable Bufordd Highway steak and wild game restauranyt known simply as The Cabin shut down in Decembetr after its owners dissolved their but new tenants are working to reopen the restauranr within a couple of Previous Cabin owners Mike Cofer and Barrg Lennon decided to endtheir years-long partnership late last year, since Cofer now lives in the Nortjh Georgia town of where he runs the Cateechese Golf Course and its Waterfall Grille restaurant.
Lennon said the partnership had runits course, so the pair decidedd to close The Cabin, which is nestled on Buford Highway near Lenox Road. A new group of Cook Brothers Restaurant Group, has taken over The Cabin' lease, and they plan to repaint and do minort renovations to thebuilding -- including doubling the size of the bar -- befored reopening under a new name sometime in late spring, said Lennon, who is in negotiationxs to possibly help run the restaurant. The restaurang will be renamed Chattahoochee Lennon said. For nearly a Atlanta diners could often spy business executivex diningon fish, steak and wild game entrees such as veniso n meatloaf at The Cabin.
The restaurant is known for its hunting cabin Where there's smoke ... The original Fuego tapas-stylwe restaurant in Alpharetta has been closed so that ownerds Rodney Wedge and Connie Chatham can focus more of theird time and energy on their newMidtow location. Wedge said the decision to shut the Alpharettaa store was made in late January after the restaurant repeatedlyy broke even but never postecdsubstantial profits. Fuego opened in earlyt 2001. The Midtown Fuego opened in October at the old Metrotainmen t Bakery site on Crescent Avenue witha red, orangew and yellow paint scheme and an outdoor patiol that hasn't opened yet due to chilly temperatures.
Wedges expects things to heat up by when the new patio is scheduled to open and the restaurantt adds Sunday lunch Word has it thata family-style Italian restaurant may open in the former Alpharetta location.