is a
Motorsport s complex located in
Talladega, Alabama .
It was constructed in the
1960s in place of abandoned
Airport Runway s by
International Speedway Corporation , a business controlled by
NASCAR 's founding France family along with
Daytona International Speedway and several other
Racetrack s. At 2.66 miles (4.28 km) long, Talladega is the largest oval track in the
Nextel Cup Series and has seating provisions for over 175,000 patrons.
The start/finish line is placed after the pit exit because Bill France wanted to have higher ticket sales towards that side, as well as centered with pit road. The unusual placement has affected the outcome of several races (the start/finish line is normally placed across from the center of pit road). The track is adjacent to and visible from
Interstate 20 .
The
International Motorsports Hall Of Fame is adjacent to the Talladega Superspeedway.
In the early days of NASCAR, a one-mile, oval track was originally planned to be built in
Hillsborough, North Carolina . Local religious leaders opposed the construction of such a large track, and NASCAR founder
Bill France decided to instead build the track in Alabama at Talladega.
1
Talladega got off to a controversial start when the Professional Drivers Association, a union of drivers led by
Richard Petty , went on strike the night before the inaugural Talladega 500. The union was concerned with the speed which could be attained due to the track's length and steep banking, and the perceived threat to driver safety that this posed. Bill France took to the track himself in a car and drove around it at high speeds. NASCAR also ran a successful support race, but it was not enough, and the PDA drivers went on strike. Replacement drivers from the previous day's race were asked to race, and tickets were good for future races. The race was the only win for
Richard Brickhouse and was the debut race for six-time Winston/Nextel Cup Owners' Champion
Richard Childress .
Speeds well in excess of 200 mph (320 km/h) were commonplace at Talladega. Talladega Superspeedway has the record for the fastest recorded time in a closed oval course, with the record of 216.309 mph (348.116 km/h) set by (212.809 mph) set in
1987 .
Buddy Baker was the first driver to qualify at a speed over 200 mph, with a 200.447 mph lap during qualifying on
March 24 ,
1970 . Baker was also the first recorded driver to break the 200 mph barrier at the track, with a speed of 200.096 mph in a test session.
In 1987
Bobby Allison experienced a tire failure while going through the "trioval" portion of the track, which sent his car airborne. His car tore out a portion of the frontstretch catch fence, nearly entering the crowd. NASCAR imposed rule changes to slow the cars after the incident, with a 1988 rule requiring cars running there and at Daytona to use
Restrictor Plate s. The most often cited reason is a fear that the increasing speeds were exceeding the capabilities of the tires available at the time, as high-speed tire failure had led to some gruesome crashes at slightly lower speeds. The plates limit the amount of air and fuel entering the intake manifolds of the car, greatly reducing the power of the cars and hence their speed. This has led to the style of racing held at Talladega and Daytona to be somewhat different from that at other
Superspeedway s and to be referred to by NASCAR fans as "''restrictor-plate racing''".
The reduced power affects not only the maximum speed reached by the cars but the time it takes them to achieve their full speed as well, which can be nearly one full circuit of the track. The racing seen at Talladega today is extremely tight; often in rows of three or four cars, and sometimes even 5 wide on the straightaways throughout most of the field, as the track is wide enough to permit such racing.
Such close quarters due to the cars being so close to each other, however, makes it extremely difficult for a driver to avoid an incident as it is unfolding in front of him, and the slightest mistake often leads to massive (and often frightening) multi-car accidents - dubbed "
The Big One " by fans and drivers - and Talladega is notorious for such, and always has been. It is not uncommon to see 20 or more cars collected in them. Such huge crashes are less frequent at Daytona, which is a more handling oriented track.
The danger of "The Big One" not only can cause extensive damage to cars during a race, but it can affect points standings overall... especially during the
Chase For The Cup , since the
UAW-Ford 500 is part of the Chase schedule, although such big wrecks occasionally occurred even before the restrictor plates were introduced as well.
Talladega Superspeedway went under heavy re-construction on the pavement of the racing surface and down on apron (trouble lane). Construction began on May 1, 2006 and ended September 18, 2006. The first NASCAR Premier Division race after the face-lift was the John Deere 250, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on October 7th.
Mark Martin qualified on the pole for the race, and turned out to be the winner in the end after the hard crash on the last lap in turn 3 involving
Mike Wallace in the GEICO Chevrolet and
Derrike Cope in the Keymotorsports Chevrolet.
Talladega hosts two
Nextel Cup races and one
Busch Series race annually. Both of the Nextel Cup races are 500.08 miles (188 laps) (800 km) in length. The names by which the races are called now vary due to the purchase of
Naming Rights , with the spring Nextel Cup race since spring 2002 (
2002 ) being referred to as the ''
Aaron's 499'' after the Atlanta-based rent-to-own chain. On
July 26 2005 it was announced that the
Craftsman Truck Series would begin holding a race at Talladega starting in
2006 .
The Winston 500 was known as one of the sport's four legs of the traditional "
Winston Million ", with the
Daytona 500 ,
Coca-Cola 600 , and the
Southern 500 being the other three. With the demise of the Southern 500 by a lawsuit, there are only three majors remaining. (From 1985 until 1997, a driver who won three of the four majors won a one million dollar bonus.)
In Summer 2006, Talladega Superspeedway was repaved.
''See also:''
List Of NASCAR Race Tracks
- March 24 , 1970 : During qualifying, Buddy Baker becomes the first RECORDED driver in NASCAR history to break the 200 mph barrier by turning a lap of 200.447 mph (322.588 km/h).
- August 20 , 1971 : Paula Murphy, "Miss STP" made a record closed course run for a female at 171.499 mph (276.001 km/h).
- August, tests an Indy car at a speed of over 217 mph (349 km/h).
- sets a closed-course world record at 221.160 mph. It would stand as a world record for four years, and as a United States record until 1986.
- set a still standing NASCAR record with 75 lead changes in a single race.
- sets a 500-mile race record, winning the Winston 500 at an average speed of 186.288 mph. Elliott won the race despite losing nearly two laps during a lengthy early pit stop to fix a broken oil line, and despite the race only having two caution flags. Elliott made up the entire distance he lost under one lengthy, green-flag period. The record stood as the fastest 500-mile race of any kind until 1990 , when Al Unser, Jr. broke it by winning the CART Michigan 500 at Michigan International Speedway at an average speed of 189.727 mph (305.336 km/h). Mark Martin later broke the record for fastest 500-mile NASCAR race (see below).
- sets a record closed course run for a female, at over 200 mph (320 km/h).
- sets a closed-course speed record for four-wheel drive vehicles with an Audi 5000CS Turbo Quattro at 206.825 mph (332.853 km/h).
- - set of 2 world and 21 international records with three series SAAB 9000 Turbo - 100,000 km with an average speed of 213.299 km/h and 50,000 miles with an average speed of 213.686 km/h.
- qualifying record, winning the pole for the Winston 500 at a speed of 212.809 mph (342.483 km/h) (44.998 seconds). The record still stands due strictly to the use of the Carburetor Restrictor Plate , mandated after the 1987 season.
- October 11 , 1988 : Lyn St. James sets a record closed course run for a female at 212.577 mph (342.110 km/h), driving a Ford Thunderbird.
- sets a record closed course run for a female at 216.607 mph (348.595 km/h), driving a Buick .
- January 23 , 1990 : Patty Moise sets a record closed course run for a female at 217.498 mph (350.029 km/h), driving a Buick.
- 1996 Saab set endurance and speed record-breaking runs in their 900 .
- May 10 , 1997 : Mark Martin wins the Winston Select 500, a race which had no caution flags, at a NASCAR 500-mile record speed of 188.354 mph (303.126 km/h), nearly ten years after the introduction of restrictor plates.
- tests a stock car without a restrictor plate for series sponsor Nextel to test communication capabilities, and hits a speed over 228 mph (367 km/h) on the straights (some reports say the speeds were close to 235 mph / 378 km/h), and 221 mph (356 km/h) average speed for the lap.
See Also: Memorable races at Talladega
- wins the Aaron's 499 in controversial fashion. Brian Vickers causes a caution after spinning while overtaking Dale Earnhardt Jr. with less than five laps remaining, freezing the field. A red flag could not be applied when fewer than five laps were remaining in the race when the caution waved, and there were about four and a third laps remaining. When NASCAR decided not to restart the race, owing to unrealistic concerns of another incident similar to Rusty Wallace 's terrifying 1993 crash on a two-lap shootout, and Mark Martin's injury in a one-lap shootout at Daytona in 1997. Fans littered the track with debris. This incident resulted in outrage by Fox commentator Chris Myers , and led to the July implementation of a Green-white-checker rule.
- 2004 (Fall): Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins the EA Sports 500 , but is penalized 25 points for violating NASCAR's policy on obscenity following an interview where he mentions to Matt Yocum, "Well, (his fifth career Talladega win) don't mean shit right now, (Dale Earnhardt Sr has) won here ten times."
- won his second straight Aaron's 499 under the Green-white-checker rule stretching the race to 516 miles, and won despite a 25-car wreck (the third largest in the modern era) brought out the red flag on Lap 132, in which started when Mike Wallace bumped into Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson causing a chain reaction pile-up in Turn 1.
- held off Tony Stewart and Brian Vickers at the Aaron's 499 on May 1 , 2006 (the race had been delayed from Sunday to Monday). When he stepped out of the car, Dick Berggren (FOX pit reporter) told him he was an uncle of new born Connor Johnson. Several drivers were blamed for causing two multi-car crashes in the race. Johnson also became the eighth driver to win all four legs of NASCAR's Grand Slam in his career.
- 2006 (Fall): Brian Vickers wins under caution after bumping the car of teammate Jimmie Johnson into the car of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. during a last lap pass on the backstretch at the UAW-Ford 500 on October 8 , 2006 . In a repeat of the 2004 Aaron's 499 , the fans expressed their disapproval of Junior not winning by tossing debris onto the track.
- goes for a terrifying tumble into the 3rd turn during the Busch Series race, after making contact with Tony Stewart. Numerous other cars are involved in other small wrecks during the race that whittled the field down. Jeff Gordon wins the Cup race the next day, and, like the 2004 race, a few fans litter the track in debris in protest of Gordon passing Dale Earnhardt in career wins.
- Bolton, Mike and Jim Nunn (October 7, 2006) "Talladega doesn't measure up." ''Birmingham News''. - Updates previously-published track dimensions with new measurements taken during 2006 repaving.
- Fielden, Greg. ''NASCAR Chronicle.'' Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, Ltd., 2004.
