Talladega Superspeedway

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Template:Infobox Nascar Racetrack Image:Bill Elliott 200 mph.jpg Talladega Superspeedway is now the official name of a motorsports complex located north of Talladega, Alabama, that was formerly Alabama International Motor Speedway. It was constructed in the 1960s in place of abandoned airport runways by International Speedway Corporation, a business controlled by NASCAR's founding France family which also owns Daytona International Speedway and several other racetracks. At 2.66 miles long, Talladega is the largest track in the Nextel Cup Series and has seating provisions for over 175,000 patrons. It is adjacent to, and visible from, Interstate 20, a major east-west highway across the Southern United States, between Birmingham, and Atlanta.

Talladega got off to a controversial start when the Professional Drivers Association, a union of drivers led by the great Richard Petty, went on strike the night before the inaugural Talladega 500 because of 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. NASCAR founder Bill France took to the track himself in a car and drove around it at high speeds, and they 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, but it was the only win for Richard Brickhouse and was the debut race for 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 stock car - 212.809 mph set by Bill Elliott on April 30, 1987. Elliott circled the 2.66-mile trioval in 44.998 seconds. Early in that race, Bobby Allison's Buick LeSabre flew into the catchfencing, injuring fans. NASCAR imposed rule changes to slow the cars after the incident, with a 1988 rule requiring cars running there and at Daytona run with restrictor plates limiting the amount of air and fuel which could be entering the intake manifolds of the car at any one time, 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 than that at other superspeedways 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 throughout most of the field. Such close quarters makes it extremely difficult to control the car, and the slightest mistake often leads to massive (and often frightening) accidents - dubbed "the big one" by fans and drivers - and Talladega is notorious for such. (They are less frequent at Daytona as handling plays a greater role there)

Talladega hosts both two Nextel Cup and one Busch Series races, NASCAR's top two divisions, 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 Aaron's 499 was known as one of the sport's four legs of the Winston Million, with the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, and the Southern 500 being the other three. With the demise of the Florentine classic by a lawsuit, there are only three majors remaining. (From 1985 until 1997, a driver who won three majors won a one million dollar bonus.)

The International Motorsports Hall of Fame is adjacent to the Talladega Superspeedway.

See also: List of NASCAR race tracks

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Current Races

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Records

August 20, 1971: Paula Murphy, "Miss STP" made a record closed course run for a female at 171.499 mph.
August, 1974: A.J. Foyt tests an Indy car at a speed of over 217 mph.
August 9, 1975: Mark Donohue 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.

1984: The 1984 Winston 500 set a still standing NASCAR record with 75 lead changes in a single race.
May 5, 1985: Bill Elliott 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. Mark Martin later broke the record for fastest 500-mile NASCAR race (see below).
November 26, 1985: Lyn St. James sets a record closed course run for a female, at over 200 mph.
1986: The Saab Long Run - 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.
May 1, 1987: Bill Elliott sets the all-time NASCAR qualifying record, winning the pole for the Winston 500 at a speed of 212.809 mph (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, driving a Ford Thunderbird.
December 14, 1989: Patty Moise sets a record closed course run for a female at 216.607 mph, driving a Buick.
January 23, 1990: Patty Moise sets a record closed course run for a female at 217.498 mph, driving a Buick.
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.
2003: Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his fourth consecutive race at Talladega. The spring race also featured a 27-car crash in the opening laps; the largest crash in NASCAR in the modern era.
2004: Jeff Gordon wins the Aaron's 499 in controversial fashion. While overtaking Dale Earnhardt Jr. with less than five laps remaining, Brian Vickers spins, and causes a caution, 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 decides not to restart the race, owing to 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 litter 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.
June 10, 2004: Rusty Wallace tests a stock car without a restrictor plate, and hits a speed over 228 mph on the straights, and 221 mph average speed for the lap.
2004: 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 the pit reporter, "It (his fifth career Talladega win) doesn't mean shit (compared to his father's ten wins)."
2005: Jeff Gordon wins the Aaron's 499, the longest Cup race in Talladega history, 516 miles (194 laps), following a green-white-checkered caused by a crash with one and a half laps remaining.