henrycounty.com
A HENRY COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PUBLICATION
HAMPTON • LOCUST GROVE • MCDONOUGH • STOCKBRIDGE
FEBRUARY 2017 IN THIS ISSUE Chair’s Message
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Business Profile
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Calendar
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What’s Your Strategy? Board Members
YOUR BUSINESS IS OUR BUSINESS
HISTORY IN THE MAKING As Nascar Returns To Atlanta Motor Speedway March 3-5
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Leadership Henry/ Youth Leadership Henry/ Ribbon Cuttings
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Chamber Membership
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Business Boosters Luncheon
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Financial Focus
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T Comfortably South of Atlanta The Henry County Chamber of Commerce serves as the voice for the business community, provides quality services and programs that meet the needs of its members, improves the economic environment of the community and creates a legacy of leadership for the future.
#DidYouKnow You can supply a door prize from your business at our Business Boosters Lunch and/or our Business After Hours. We will mention your business as the supplier of the door prize. Make sure to attach a card to your prize so the recipient will have a record of who the gift came from.
he best stock car drivers in the world will converge once again on the Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 3-5, when all three of NASCAR’s national touring series make their annual stop at one of the original superspeedways on the NASCAR circuit. While it’s no secret that the Georgia race track, steeped waistdeep in NASCAR lore, writes a new chapter in its remarkable story with each passing race, the 2017 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 Weekend will mark an especially historic occasion in Atlanta Motor Speedway’s celebrated history. Nearly 20 years to the day since it was last repaved, the 1.54-mile racing surface that has produced some of NASCAR’s most exciting races and closest finishes will be resurfaced this spring. But, not before one last goround. The 2017 Atlanta NASCAR weekend represents the final opportunity for fans to witness NASCAR action on the secondoldest racing surface on the entire
circuit before it is repaved, ending one era of extraordinary stock car racing and beginning another one anew. Since its last resurfacing project in the spring of 1997, Atlanta Motor Speedway has hosted 31 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races, 19 NASCAR XFINITY Series races and 15 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races. In total, that’s a whopping 603,600 laps and 929,544 miles driven by some of the most elite drivers in the fastest stock cars in the land. The current surface has also endured eight ARCA races, four IndyCar races and countless Legends and Bandolero races on its quartermile “Thunder Ring.” Over the years, many of NASCAR’s most iconic races and most memorable moments have taken place on the now 20-year-old surface. Some of those include Dale Earnhardt’s razor-thin 0.010-second margin of victory over Bobby Labonte in 2000, Kevin Harvick’s emotional and track-record 0.006-second margin of victory over Jeff Gordon
in 2001 and recently-retired Carl Edwards’ first premierseries victory in the spring of 2005, in which he edged out Jimmie Johnson by just 0.028 seconds behind the wheel of Jack Roush’s No. 99 car before going on to sweep the season in Atlanta by winning a no-doubter in the fall after starting on the front row. While the repave project offers a fresh, new outlook on future racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the 2017 NASCAR Weekend provides fans from across the NASCAR world a chance to witness history made before their eyes, as one of racing’s greatest chapters closes and another begins. No doubt, drivers in all three series will give the current surface the proper send-off it deserves. All the 2017 action kicks off with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying day on Friday, March 3 before the only same-day doubleheader on the NASCAR schedule takes to the track on
Saturday, March 4 with the back-toback Rinnai 250 XFINITY Series and Active Pest Control 200 Camping World Truck Series races. The Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 will round out the weekend on Sunday, March 5 with a scheduled 2:30 p.m. green flag as the final laps are turned on NASCAR’s second-oldest racing surface on the entire circuit. Tickets and weekend packages are available now for those who wish to be on hand for the historic racing action, by contacting the Atlanta Motor Speedway ticket office at 770-9464211 or by visiting the AMS website at www.AtlantaMotorSpeedway.com.