TALLADEGA: Nascar's Most Feared Track

Legend has it that the Muskogee Indians used to run horse races in the dry valley in what is now northern Alabama. The natives referred to the region as talatigi or border town. Finally, as American settlers began to colonize the surrounding lands, the frontier of Native American territory gradually began. to be reduced in 1813 the Talitigi had become a battlefield when the Muskogee erupted into civil war. The Talitigi natives remained loyal to the Americans and helped General Andrew Jackson defeat the Red Sticks, an opposing faction fighting to preserve sovereignty of Indian Territory in 1830 President Andrew Jackson would return the favor by ordering the expulsion of all indigenous tribes from the southern United States disgraced by their compatriots and betrayed by their American allies.

The Talidad Indians abandoned their ancestral lands, never to return, according to legend, as the tribe gazed across the dry valley during The last time the shaman cursed the land and all its future intruders to suffer misfortune 130 years later, the Nascar president is looking for a new site to build his

most

ambitious race

track

yet after failing to secure a headquarters in Raleigh or Greenville. Bill France set his sights on a secluded valley in northern Alabama, the town of Talladega was chosen as the location for NASCAR's largest super race

track

, where instead of horses, men lifted two tons of hunks of metal triple digit speeds. bill france probably never knew about the curse al

most

no one did, but soon enough, one way or another, all of

nascar

would learn to fear the new leader from

talladega

.

He was waiting all day to say this. This is Ricky Bobby. He is shaking a lot. How did he get through all these cars in the opening race of a Nascar race? can be something truly special the first daytona 500 in 1959 immediately cemented the race as

nascar

's most prestigious event the first nascar race in indianapolis in 1994 was such a spectacle that it attracted more participants than any other event in the history of the Sport the inaugural Talladega race is also a spectacle, but not for the right reasons. Hi, I'm Slab Shoes and this is an abbreviated version of my video about what is considered the worst Nascar race in history, which was the first race held at Talladega, if you will. all the nitty-gritty details, link to full video is in the description, to say the first Talladega event was controversial would be an understatement, it's unlike any other race ever held in Nascar history and for all the wrong reasons, first the track was completed dangerously close to opening weekend by design bill france had gone into serious debt trying to build this place and needs his money back ASAP in august, just a month before race day,

talladega

performs His first tests and despite reaching a maximum of 195 miles per hour the driver showed concern from the beginning Donnie Allison, a multiple winner in the first division of Nascar, said that the track is as hard as a cob, it would be a beautiful track if was smooth, the only way they're going to fix it is to repave it, meanwhile, Kel Yarbrough noticed his tires were shredded after just a dozen laps on the track.

He also noticed a lot of bumps in the corners, not exactly something you want to navigate when going 200 miles per hour in what happened. For safety equipment in the 1960s, NASCAR's two tire manufacturers, Goodyear and Firestone, take note of tire wear and promise to return with harder tires to compensate for the first open practice for all teams to take place in September on Wednesday, just before Sunday's race and that tire issue is not resolved, the guys are noticing chunks of rubber coming off the tires after a few laps. Goodyear and Firestone fly on harder compounds on Thursday and Friday, but nothing works, drivers are getting cocky, and on Friday, Firestone backs out citing driver safety concerns. who just a few weeks ago formed the professional drivers association, an organization similar to a union, are openly talking about a possible strike and the president of the pda, richard petty, the winningest nascar driver in history, is in some negotiations tense with bill franz, but the final straw camel's back was an exchange between france and bobby allison, who won the most recent race last week.

France tells Bobby quoting "I think you're just afraid to compete." Bobby was surprised, but it was the calm Leroy Yarbrough who came up behind him. and he swung and hit Bill France in the face, knocking him to the ground. Leroy then calmly said to everyone watching the kids pack their things, we're leaving and just like that, almost all of the drivers put their cars back on the transporter and left the track safely. for three holdouts, one Bobby Isaac, a soft-spoken man who never joined the PDA simply because he didn't like the idea of ​​someone speaking on his behalf to a non-PDA driver named Jim Vandiver, who drove a car owned by Ray Foxx and three Promising youngster named Richard Brickhouse Richard made his first start in Nascar's premier division last year at Rockingham and, despite it being his first race on a paved track, finished fourth.

Brickhouse is a pda pilot and plans to leave, but dodges. The factory team takes him aside and offers him a new vehicle, the new Dodge Charger Daytona, a winged supercar supposedly capable of reaching speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour, but this weekend that won't happen, the tires just won't work. they can bear it. Brickhouse accepts the deal. and he scabs leaving the pda that afternoon, so there's a 500 mile race on a 2.66 mile track with only three cars in the mix. Bill France is offering fans a special offer if they buy a ticket to the inaugural race at Talladega, they can use that stub. enter the Daytona 500 next year with a two-for-one special that had good people flocking to see the spectacle in Alabama, but Big Bill has an ace up his sleeve to make the race a little less ridiculous. robs the drivers of Saturday's preliminary race the great American series that competes with smaller pony cars on the indoor circuit not on the big track instead of chargers chevelles torinos and road racers compete with camaros mustangs darts and even an amc javelina These cars were never intended to be driven on a track this big and can barely reach 160 miles per hour with the wind at their backs, not to mention there's no way they can pass MOT.

These are cars from a completely different series, so Big Bill France calls one sound and just changes. minimum speed requirements and inspection templates all with just a simple wave of the hand and, in case any drivers are thinking about backing out, offers cash bonuses just for getting off the grid at the top of the aforementioned profit pool, but with so much tension hanging in the air over this ramshackle, ramshackle race, the stage is set for disaster to strike and it does, but not in the way anyone expected, that the problem of Tires were resolved at the last moment as Goodyear flies in its final salute.

Mary and those tires finally held up, there wasn't a single tire failure that day. No, what happened in this race was one of my favorite parts of old Nascar racing. The punctuation error. Electronic transponders, timing and scoring did not exist yet, so the officials would move signs on a desk to keep track of all the cars, if the officials agreed with the racing order then it was final, but of Every once in a while they were wrong, well that happened in this race, that's right, with only three cars. being competitive, nascar still lost track of jim vandiver and richard brickhouse, the two guys who were competing for the lead, bobby isaac was taking it easy, he only cared about finishing so he could have some easy points to compete for the championship with His entire competition sitting at Richard Brickhouse has been declared the winner by NASCAR officials, but Jim Vandiver and his car's owner, Ray Fox, are convinced they have won and even the radio call with the two-time series champion ned jarrett in the booth thought jim vandiver was in the lead. and I think it's worth noting that jim drove the older model Dodge Charger and was not affiliated with Chrysler Corp, while Brick House drove the Dodge Factory model and was the first race for their new winged wonder car.

Rumors persist that the scoring error was no accident and Chrysler executives sweetly convinced Bill France to rig the end of the race; After all, they kept some of the intrigue for the event by making a big deal about their new car. Many people who attended bought a ticket just because they wanted to see that new Daytona tear down the track at almost 200 miles per hour. Richard Brickhouse's wins continue and he is absolutely elated with his first career win in the Cub Series and he is so confident that he will be chosen to drive the car full time.

Next year he will use his winnings to buy a new plane, but unfortunately he never received a call from Chrysler or any team. Within a year he was semi-retired and only competed a few times a year, so there he is. it was a disaster of a race made up mostly of field fillers a tire scandal was resolved at the last possible second a new supercar that no one could see the full potential of and of those two competitive cars that were on the track they were driven by two guys which no one had heard of and we're not even sure which one of them actually won the race.

If this isn't the worst race in Nascar history, then I really don't know what would be. Thus ends the story of Nascar's most disastrous race. inaugural race and thus begins the story of the Talladiga curse for the next half century. The Talladega Super Speedway would be home to some of the strangest, most inexplicable and heartbreaking events to ever afflict the sport of stock car racing. The earliest races at the track are possibly the most mysterious, they existed in a time before Nascar was frequently televised and most footage from this era is missing or not publicly available for many incidents during this time, only the stories remain.

Leaving the rest to our imagination, Talladega's troubles would continue into 1973. In what may have been the most tumultuous year in the track's history, that year's Winston 500 earned the dubious distinction as the only race in NASCAR's modern era. which started with a 60-car field, a decision that would immediately backfire on lap nine when one car blew an engine and spilled a trail of oil in front of the oversized field. Drivers were instantly sent spinning across the grass of the field, kicking up a cloud of smoke and dust that made many mangled cars impossible to see as the dust settled. 23 drivers had piled into the rubble and Talladiga's backstretch now looked like the set from a Mad Max movie.

Several drivers suffered serious injuries, including veteran driver Wendell Scott, who was so seriously injured that he was practically forced to retire. It was a true miracle that no one died that day the next race at Talladega would not be so lucky just three months later, the teams and drivers would have to pick up the pieces and race again in the Talladega 500 on lap 13, the rookie Defender of the Year, Larry Smith, crashed into the wall in turn one. In a single car incident hours later, fans and team members were shocked to discover that Smith had tragically become Talladega's first fatality.

Something even more inexplicable later that same day, halfway through the race, the 1970 champion impulsively put his car in the pits. It was at that point, halfway through the race, that Bobby Isaac decided to retire from full-time racing media at that time. He reported that Isaac heard a voice in his head telling him to stop racing immediately after missing the remainder of the 1973 season. Isaac would periodically return to the track for a handful of races a year. In 1977, the 45-year-old driver collapsed while exiting the race. car and would be declared dead the next day from cardiac arrest at the time Isaac held the nascar record for the fastest lap at Talladega which he said in 1970 in 1975 racing legend Mark Donahue ran A time trial lap at Talladega with an average speed of 221 miles per hour setting a closed-course world record days later, Donahue was fatally injured in an accident while practicing.for the austrian grand prix almost the same day as donahue's accident, beloved nascar driver tiny lund was hit and killed after another car collided with the driver's side.

The gate on Talladega's backstretch in less than a decade of operation Talladega Super Speedway had already been directly or indirectly linked to the deaths of four drivers; However, after the death of Tiny Lund, the spirits of the Speedway will look more favorably on the track's active competitors to this day. tiny lund remains the last driver to lose his life in a nascar race at talladega, while the drivers would be remarkably saved on the track, there were never any guarantees on it during the 1975 winston 500. richard petty's car caught fire In the pits when Petty's brother-in-law Randy Owens rushed to put out the flames with a fire hose, the nearby pressurized water tank exploded, throwing Owens 15 feet into the air and killing him instantly in 1977, veteran driver David Cisco was racing at Talladega when he was greeted by a terrifying sight in the field where his mother had been hit and killed by a pickup truck near the garage area.

Cisco was apparently so devastated that he would never attempt another NASCAR race. Incredibly, this would not be the last death. Related to a pickup truck in Talladega in 1996, Arca's president was boned in the parking lot and would later die from his injuries along with his series of unexplained tragedies. The early days of Talladega also held some of the strangest mysteries auto racing has ever known on the morning of the 1974 Talladega 500 crew members woke up to a disconcerting event. The racing cars of nearly a dozen drivers had been sabotaged. Crews inspected their vehicles and discovered slashed tires, severed oil lines and gas tanks filled with sand.

The magnitude of the sabotage was only fully understood. During the race, many drivers began to experience mechanical failures as soon as they arrived at the track, miraculously no drivers were injured in the fiasco, but sabotaging so many race cars on a track as fast as Talladega It was practically a mass murder attempt, the authorities began an immediate investigation to find the perpetrator, but they could not identify even a single suspect, whoever sabotaged the cars left no trace of evidence and to this day, the handler of Talladega is still at large after the worst vehicle sabotage in Nascar history, the track increased security for future events and while they managed to keep future criminals out of the garage they did not think to check if one could end up behind the wheel before the Winston 500 In 1982, some drivers expressed confusion over an unknown name on the race entry list.

A man by the name of L.W. Wright had purchased a race car for twenty thousand dollars in which he entered that week's race at Talladega despite Claiming to be a seasoned veteran of stock car racing, no other driver had ever heard of him, however, in an era before detailed records were kept. It was somewhat plausible that a driver could have honed his skills in some town in the middle of nowhere. The mystery driver managed to qualify for the race despite wrecking his car on just the second lap of the track while the team was repairing the car for race day.

Wright seemed unable to answer basic questions that any driver should have known, suspicions aside, Wright managed to line up for Sunday's race and take the green flag immediately. It was clear that the number 34 Chevrolet was dangerously off the pace. Wright was quickly overtaken by the leaders and received the order. for nascar to withdraw from the race, so wright was black flagged again as he passed us and wright was ordered to the whistle after entering the pits. Wright got out of his car, slid into the infield and was never seen again. We discovered that L.W Wright was an imposter and had scammed almost 50,000 investors so he could compete alongside the biggest stars in Nascar to this day.

L.W Wright's true identity remains unknown. his alias persists as a name in the nascar record books that may always be shrouded in mystery after letting what was essentially an ordinary citizen have fun at a sanctioned professional sporting event, nascar would tighten its standards on who exactly could be allowed on the track; However, while more attention was being paid to the drivers in the race cars, there was another car that they forgot, well the safety car which we understand has been stolen, the officials are not driving this thing and someone actually went to the safety car. safety car and stole it at the 1986 Winston 500.

Darren Crowder, 20, stole the safety car that had been left unoccupied on pit road, completing a full circuit at more than 100 miles per hour before police set up a blockade and stopped him throughout the bewildering spectacle, the crowd of 133,000 fans applauded frantically as it grew and we are all told to respect. the law of the land, but sometimes you just have a root for the rebel After the Muskogee Indians were forced from their lands, most obeyed the order and submitted to the infamous Trail of Tears, some of the natives, however , they refused to go west toward the Indians. territory and instead opted to keep their destiny in their own hands, some Muskogee turned their gaze south to the largely uninhabited territory of Florida, the subtropical peninsula had become known as a safe haven for refugees from the American empire in expansion along with several other displaced natives and fugitive African slaves the remains of the Muskogee would be integrated into a new tribe the Seminales although they too were forced to abandon their way of life like everyone else at least for the moment they were free in 1819 Spain ceded the territory of Florida to the United States and concerns about relocation immediately returned, although the Seminoles were briefly given a reservation on the peninsula, it would not be long until the federal government once again demanded that they move west after Sacrificing so much that the Seminal refused to budge and after Chief Osceola shot and killed Federal Agent Wiley Thompson, they found themselves at war with the might of the US Army.

As US troops marched towards Florida, the Seminole warriors would soon be outmatched in number up to ten to one, needless to say they were big losers. will have to do it, can't do it, still, Parsons is going to win his first Winston Cup race, there's the Ladies Super Speedway, Talladega, it's always been unusually favorable to the underdog, the relative ease with which drivers can navigating the track opens the door for the occasional David. to compete with nascar's goliath, in addition to richard brickhouse's fluke victory in the inaugural race, five other drivers would achieve their only career victory in the first 20 years of competition at talladega, by far the most of any track of the sport in the early days of track, winning at Talladega was a matter of endurance.

Completing 500 miles on the sport's longest circuit was a daunting task for even the most dominant racing teams. Putting yourself in a position to win was often as simple as overcoming the wear and tear on your Competitors Eventually, most teams figured out how to make their machines go the distance, and the name of the game changed to speed despite their many tests and tribulations. Talladega Super Speedway has always managed to attract fans for one simple reason: there is no other place on earth where you can witness so many cars go so fast. The track's 33-degree curves allow drivers to maintain incredible momentum throughout the circuit.

Talladega may be the only track in all of racing where you can complete a full lap without even touching the brake pedal. The colossal oval is capable of producing speeds so extreme that most motorsports are not comfortable racing on it. In 1980, Indycar had plans for a race at Talladega. They would soon scrap the idea forever after it became clear that the cars would move so fast that any accident would basically mean that stock cars of death are considerably slower than open-wheel cars, but very soon they too would begin to approach the danger zone. Bobby Isaac managed to break the 200 mile per hour barrier as early as 1970, but rule changes in cars reduced speeds to 180 for most of the decade, although speeds began to gradually increase and in 1982, Benny Parsons would reach 200 again, becoming the first Nascar driver to eclipse the mark in a qualifying lap.

A year later, Kale Yarbrough would reach 202, surpassing Bobby Isaac's 13 years. old record 1985 would mark the arrival of the fastest man in nascar history, bill elliot, who would qualify for the winston 500 with a monster lap of 209 miles per hour eliot's car was much faster than the competition than after A broken oil pump forced him to the pits. Elliot would overcome a five-mile deficit with Greene to retake the lead late in the race even after burning several minutes on pit road. Elliot had just run the fastest race in the history of nascar completing 500 miles in just over 2 hours and 41 minutes, two years later, bill elliott would complete a lap of two and two-thirds miles at talladega in less than 45 seconds establishing an average speed of 212.8 miles per hour .

It was at this point that the entire sport of stock car racing would discover that they had ventured. too far into unwanted territory talladega means speed means competition and speed is certainly something we've seen a lot this weekend larry eight drivers exceeded 210 miles per hour the same front row as last year bill elliott on the pole and bobby allison Along with Bobby Allison, he spent a brief period as NASCAR's most popular driver, and at Talladega, the Alabama-born racing legend was always a fan favorite. On May 3, 1987, Bobby Allison was inches away from becoming one. with the fans bobby allison with a horrific accident here on the frontstretch has torn off an entire section of the guard rail after a mechanical failure sent his car spinning into the trioval bobby allison found himself at the center of the scariest near accident in the nascar story the pace of talladega had become so fast that even a slight aberration was enough to transform any of the 40 vehicles on the track into a 2 ton projectile just as everyone was starting to forget about the curse of talladega, the track would produce An incident so sinister that it would fundamentally alter the future of stock car racing may be considered the benevolent curse of forgiving everyone that day, but the story of Talladega's most dangerous race doesn't end here after Bobby's chilling accident.

Allison. The fastest field in Nascar history would be conquered by the heir to the Allison throne, Davey Allison, who scored his first career victory on the same day his father cheated death six years later. sad note in today's sports race car driver davey allison died this morning after the helicopter he was piloting crashed yesterday on the infield of the talladega speedway. In Alabama, Davey Allison, a great champion and a good friend of ours, was 32 years old. Although his life and career were tragically short, Davey Allison's legacy will always be etched in the 1987 Winston 500, arguably the most influential race in NASCAR history, Bill Elliott would become the last Nascar driver to reach 212 mark After this race, supertracks entered the era of the restrictor plate, a new component in the intake manifold designed to limit horsepower and maintain speeds below 200 miles per hour, this thin metal plate would completely change the game. and generates a form of racing so sensationally unique that no other motor sport in the world even comes close to replicating it.

The leader features lap after lap of three wide traffic rather than pure driving skill, winning a race with restrictive play depends on driver patience, timing and decision making compared to spectacular displays of speed in the past , Talladiga racing would now resemble a game of high-speed chess. The restrictor plates would usher in a new era of Nascar and, along with it, a new era of chaos. Wow, not what you want to see on your windshield oh my goodness, while plate racing was meant to make sportsSafer, speed super tracks arguably became more treacherous than ever before. The frequency of accidents had skyrocketed as drivers now had much less room for error in tight traffic with so many opportunities for calamity that drivers would begin to discover methods. inconceivable things to destroy a racing car.

Talladega had always been a place that pushed the limits of what was possible at a Nascar track, and the early '90s saw a notable series of accidents in which drivers would test the literal limits of the track. The 1993 500 was the first Nascar race at Talladega after the death of Davey Allison. The event would be more remembered. Due to two harrowing incidents on lap 69, rookie driver Stanley Smith would suffer a head-on collision into the turn one wall. The accident occurred eerily on the same part of the track where Larry Smith's fatal accident occurred almost 20 years to the day.

After the tragedy Stanley Smith would manage to survive but with catastrophic injuries that would end his racing career completely; However, despite involving a driver who nearly lost his life, this accident is best known for something that has not happened in a Nascar race in a quarter of a century; There is a car that has gone over the wall, as you can see, I don't remember the last time we saw a car leaving the track, but no, I can't either, Jimmy Horton's number 32 Chevy had left the track, the accident forced Nascar to install a closure. close in the Talladega curves, the new enclosure would come in handy just three years later, as it prevented Ricky Craven's car from also leaving the circuit in a similar accident;

However, in the '93 Die Hard 500, the chaos only reached the halfway mark on lap 132. Fortunately, the car was sent tumbling into the tribal fence after Bobby Allison's accident. Nascar had strongly reinforced the line between spectators and action, narrowly escaping another tragedy while it was so close. This tough 500 didn't live up to its nickname. The event continued to be remembered as the race in which the cars apparently refused to stay on the track the next time the Cub Series returned to Talladega. Mark Martin would discover the true meaning of hitting the court once again. Nascar would have to make some modifications.

Kaladega has the uncanny ability to send cars seemingly in any direction in some cases that direction would be up if he is going to win the Winston 500 they come through the checkered triumville is waving ernie evan wins and rusty smith rises into the air the hit is one of the most ethereal moments any racing fan can witness. We all know cars as some of the heaviest objects we interact with on a regular basis. Most of us would have to use all our strength to get them to move even an inch and think that something. As light as air it could be powerful enough to lift a 2 ton machine off the ground.

Well, you just have to see it to believe it. At the speeds Nascar drivers travel at Talladega, it happens more often than you might imagine. Daryl 737 will of course be designed to take off, but it will take off at 160 miles per hour. These cars run at 185 and the roof fins do their job to keep the car from going up into the air. Wow man, in 1996, the Talladega Curse finally caught on. Even bill elliott, who suffered a broken leg after his car slid across the grass, but the most spectacular rollover in Talladega history belongs to a different elliot elliot for one and a half times and on its roof in 2003, Elias Sadler would surpass a full second of airtime as his car executed a near-perfect pirouette, Eminem's 38th ford must have covered the length of a football field without touching the ground The following season, Sadler returned to Talladega and inexplicably He became the only driver in history to fail on the same track two years in a row, this time finishing the race in style.

He said that he wanted to finish this race with all four tires on the ground. He did it, but he didn't keep it there. All the time, it's one thing to witness a crash as a spectator, but experiencing it from inside a race car is a sensation most of us can only imagine. A Nascar engine can roar as loud as 140 decibels, but in a Car in the air Many drivers report a brief moment in which everything goes silent. The instant the powerful racing machine is briefly released from the grip of gravity, it is as if the driver has entered through the window into another realm.

Do you think? that if they listened closely enough they would hear the faint thuds of galloping horses on the Alabama clay, of course, at times like these, most drivers have other things to worry about since Bobby Allison's accident. Nascar has continually been trying to eliminate the knock, but no matter how hard they tried, Talladega has always found a way. blow the cars up oh, legato flips legato is upside down while more blow-ups happen at Talladega than anywhere else the track's most iconic accidents are of a very different breed since restrictor plates ushered in the era of racing in group there's been a monster stalking every superspeedway is why most drivers, teams and owners fear Talladega Sunday oh kyle caught up with field accordions back man stewart problems on the wall here we go here we go robbie gordon in the 33 harvick is over here we go guys the big one they call it the big one, a massive crash that can wipe out more than a dozen cars in the blink of an eye.

Talladega may have the most space of any Nascar track, but when the big one happens, drivers often find themselves with nowhere to go. It can happen anywhere and at any time, all it takes is for one driver to make a mistake, it's as simple as someone misjudging a block, sticking their nose into a space that's too small, or inexplicably rejoining the group halfway through. of speed, whatever the cause, the result remains the same. The days of several drivers end for something they had no way of avoiding modern racing in the Nascar fields with around 40 cars throughout the 90s.

It was not uncommon for the big one to involve 10 or more cars, about a quarter of the field in the 2000s, accidents. They started to get really huge: the 2002, 2003 and 2005 spring races at Talladega saw a crash involving over 20 drivers and race 03 consumed a Cub series record 27 cars; However, the largest accident in modern Nascar history would occur in a Talladega race in what is now the NASCAR the pile-ups on lap 14 johnny sauter's blue chevy slid to the side and began to fall in front of the entire field the drivers began to swerve towards each other to avoid the carnage and quickly block the track when everything was said and done, 31 cars were collected, almost three quarters of the entire field of the few survivors, most would lose pace due to mechanical problems, the race was eventually whittled down to just two competitive cars a scenario that may never occur in another race of nascar while the talladega races have increasingly become a festival of shipwrecks it is curious to consider that when it so wishes the most

feared

track in nascar is capable of leaving everyone unscathed the winston 500 of 1997 was the first race in the Talladega story will take no caution after crashing into the frame just three years earlier, mark martin would break bill elliott's record for the fastest nascar race by completing 500 miles in 2 hours and 39 minutes over the next five seasons.

Two more Talladega races would be run without caution, as it is now the last track in Nascar history to achieve this feat. It really makes you wonder: Is Talladega creating chaos or did we see a lot of communication on that restart, that first initial start with Stuart Haas' teams working together to get in? front line you see them moving away jeff let's show you how far this first group of Stuart Haas races has gone when everyone chooses to cooperate we are capable of achieving remarkable things in an ideal world we could do anything without caution but there is a Which is why idealism is so hopelessly fragile, while it takes everyone to prevent destruction, it only takes one to create it, as is the case with most things in America, the best you can do is survive the What you have, is nothing new in this country. tough on people you can't stop what's coming how come when we find ourselves in the biggest place we've ever known we still run out of room?

Americans have always been enamored of the concept of manifest destiny, the 19th-century ideal that the United States should inevitably stretch from sea to shining sea. This grand vision of America was finally realized at tremendous cost to those who originally roamed those lands, and even now, as we sit atop our New York skyscrapers and California mansions, manifest destiny is still very much alive. . to what we wear, what we drive, how we do business, enough is never enough, we are always moving towards some glorious indeterminate outcome, why stop at building the largest racetrack in the world when you can build an even bigger one, steeper, wider and faster? more it never ends some call it greed others call it destiny the drivers strike at the inaugural talladega contest gave many others a unique opportunity to compete in the cubs series one of those newcomers was 23 year old richard childress who would use the money from his big break prize to open his own racing team in 1981.

Childress retired from racing and handed the reins of his number three car to the new Nascar champion, a driver named Dale Earnhardt with Richard Childress Racing. Earnhardt would win six of his seven. cup championships and the childress number three would become the most iconic stock car of the 20th century. Earnhardt's career will always be more intertwined with Daytona, but one of his most impressive feats was coming closer than anyone to conquering Talladega despite hating restrictive racing the most. It was undeniable that any other driver, Earnhardt was the best at it, he was so skilled at drafting that some competitors swore he could literally see the air coming out of the cars in October 2000.

Talladega would be the site of the last victory of his career. and possibly the most impressive. A display of racing dominance the sport had never seen. Earnhardt would rise from 17th to first in the final laps to become a 10-time Talladega winner, by far the most of any driver. He may have won even more, but hey, you know what tends to happen when Someone gets close to conquering Talladega. This is definitely one of the hardest announcements I've ever had to make personally, but after the accident and turning four at the end of the Daytona 500, we lost Dale Earnhardt, the white flag is up on the last lap. at talladega who will be lavoni earhardt jr steward or perhaps someone outside the group look at this junior move on the white flag after suffering such a terrible loss the spirits of talladega would shine favorably on dale earhardt jr who would immediately continue his father's legacy One year after Dale's Senior's final victory, Dale Jr. would earn his first win at Talladega.

One of Super Speedway Racing's new Pied Piper's four consecutive track wins. Dale Jr.'s notable success on Nascar's biggest stage would instantly make him In a fan favorite, racing's new superstar would lead both Talladega and the sport to its current incarnation. Hello, Ricky Bobby. It's good to see you again. Thanks, you still owe me that 30 dollars. Oh, no one, you said it was a gift. You are a dirty liar. Now Talladega had become so infamous in pop culture that someone was bound to make a movie about it. In 2006, Will Ferrell's comedy Talladega Nights was released, a film that features a winless driver becoming increasingly resentful of his most successful teammate, curiously in the first Nascar race.

At Talladega, after the movie's release, a nearly identical story would play out in reality at the 2006 Daytona 500. Brian Vickers is leading with just 15 laps left and has a chance to score the first victory of his race in the biggest race of the year, unfortunately for Brian, his teammate, Jimmy Johnson, passes him and wins two months later in the spring Talladega race. Vickers once again has a chance to get his first win. Will Vickers be the good soldier and will he follow JeffGordon home or do you want your first? wins so badly has to get his first win takes the lead with just two globes remaining only to be passed once again by jimmy johnson later in the year hendrick's teammates returned to talladega to find themselves face to face behind dale jr in the las final laps, both Johnson and Junior are in a close battle for the championship and it is up to Vickers to help his teammate complete the pass to win.

What happened next wasn't exactly an upheaval, it's what Jimmy Johnson Talladega has always been known for. his sensational finishes since 1980, approximately one-third of all Talladega races have ended in a last-lap pass. This scenario is portrayed to great effect on Talladega nights, which makes use of the track's most distinctive feature, while most tracks are designed with the finish line at the center of Talladega's frontstretch. About a thousand feet further down the track towards the entrance to turn one, although it may seem like a small alteration, this unique design aspect has affected the results of countless races. It's amazing what can happen if you leave someone with just a little more room to run The seminal name dates back to the Spanish word cimarrone or fugitive were a tribe composed of wildly different people who shared a single unifying vision a refusal to be conquered seminal warriors bravely fought pushed the U.S. military into the most challenging and costly conflict with any indigenous group in the nation's history;

However, eventually the seminal losses became catastrophic and they simply could not survive the overwhelming resources of the United States. One by one, the seminal chiefs were captured and forced to surrender in 1843, almost the entire Seminole tribe was forcibly relocated to the Creek Reservation in Oklahoma, only a small fraction managed to evade government capture by fleeing to the Everglades, a vast expanse of swampy wilderness considered inhospitable by American settlers after nearly a decade of costly fighting the military decided it was no longer worth pursuing further at the end of the war as only 100 Seminoles remained the last fugitives during the rest of the 19th century, all other indigenous peoples in the United States would be forced to submit.

Until the government eventually rules, the Seminal Everglades would remain the last free tribe within the US territory. Despite all of its might and power, the United States would never be able to conquer the Seminal people. There are some things in this world that you simply can't control from your first run. always fought to control Talladega the track has served as a fulcrum for the sport's greatest conflict of interest by creating the most spectacular track in the world, they simultaneously created the most dangerous track in the world Nascar has always straddled the fine line between entertainment and safety throughout the track's history the sanctioning body has been in a constant balancing act to try to prevent the next Talladega catastrophe while maintaining the unique appeal of the track the continued addition of rules and regulations has resulted in a style of racing that seems completely unrecognizable from the humble beginnings of the sport and I mean, guys crashing into each other, hitting each other in the corners, in the end, what happened is going to happen, it's also going to happen again, probably before the day is over, many drivers today feel that Talladega racing is a glorified game of chance, which is something emblematic of modern Nazcar as a whole, you know, look, these championships are not like winning them like Petty and Earnhardt used to beat them and you know, it comes down to a race and it came down to a race for us tonight and we came up short like how far are we willing to compromise the merit of competition to make a more entertaining viewer product? ?

Nascar is always trying to tweak the sport to make the racing more exciting, but there comes a point where all the micromanagement becomes counterproductive, it's just idiotic to be out here doing Anyway, this is trying to put on a nice show, be it. whatever. This is stupid, there is no point in doing this. One of the most defining aspects of the current Talladega has been the looming threat of controversy where Nascar's artificial bureaucracy ends up ruining the race itself. In 2003, Nascar would end its policy of allowing drivers to race to the caution flag again as the practice was becoming too dangerous.

Instead, the field would freeze at the time of the caution flag, a change that would come to a breaking point the next spring at Talladega when the yellow flag came out with five laps to go, fans were excited when Dale Jr appeared to pass for the lead, however the lead was awarded to Jeff Gordon as he was slightly ahead of the exact time of the yellow flag, the race would not be restarted as Gordon would take a very unpopular victory as frustrated fans threw debris onto the track, NASCAR would later institute the green and white box rule to minimize the chances of races ending under caution, a policy that has since undergone numerous confusing and inconsistent changes over the years.

The most baffling officiating decisions for any Nascar finale occurred in the 2016 Xfinity Series race at Talladega. At first it seemed like an incredible feel-good story with underdog driver Brennan Poole threading the needle to score his first Nascar victory; However, in an unprecedented change, Nascar would do so. Instead of awarding the victory to Eliot Sadler, the officials had strangely frozen the field less than a thousand feet from the finish line and at that instant Sadler's car was briefly in the lead despite being in the process of crashing to the day. from today. Brennan Poole is still looking for his first win and by the way, Eliot Sadler is a winner over Brennan.

Gathered at Talladega, not even NASCAR's biggest stars can avoid the curse of the Talladega controversy Looking for his fifth win at Talladega later in season 04, Dale Jr would avenge his dubious second place finish by winning the fall race at Talladega only to ending up once again at odds with the sanctioning body in his victory lane interview, junior would drop an insult on live television. What does it mean to win here not just once but to win here five times? Well, I'm not saying that right now dad has done one here 10 times, so mistake that normally wouldn't be a problem, but it just so happened that this was the year of janet jackson's wardrobe malfunction at the super bowl and the chains at that time were very vigilant in maintaining their standards and practices, as a result, junior would be fired. 25 driver points that took him out of the championship lead. 2004 was the best season of the junior's career and it is quite possible that he would have won the title if all of us were not so sensitive to a four letter word, so the fight for the championship is over and that is how 2004 ended too It marked the beginning of Nascar's pursuit of the cup, which eventually morphed into what we now know as the controversial Nascar playoffs.

The 2014-16 playoff incarnation was most likely the most failed and unfair championship format in history. In motorsports history in October 2015, the system would be painfully exposed: where else but Talladega did this era decide to make Talladega a limit race for the next round, meaning some drivers would be forced to do everything possible to avoid elimination in the race? final restart Kevin Harvick has a serious mechanical problem that he can barely maintain safety car speed and is practically guaranteed to be eliminated unless he does something terrible, so with no other conceivable way to save his season, Harvick swerves into the safety car who is next to him and causes a 10-car pileup, the yellow flag goes out, Harvick reaches the finish line and advances to the next round and quite possibly the worst Nascar finish in the last decade, you can hardly blame a guy for doing it, or he'll make it if he does it and destroys some people who are going slow or he won't make it if he goes green for two laps, but I don't know, it just feels like we lost control of the situation, you know, Look, these are not, these championships are not. like winning like Petty and Earnhardt used to win them, modern Nascar always throws curve balls and drivers will adapt to do anything that gets them closer to winning.

One of the more unique changes to super racing strategy was the brief rise of tandem drafting after launch. From the Nascar Carve Tomorrow drivers begin to realize that the flat nose design allowed the cars to lock the bumpers on tracks like Talladega and get an extra boost in speed The era of the tandem would really begin in 2010 Redos 499, a race that saw a record 88 lead changes for the following season, the drivers had mastered the tandem, leading to one of the most incredible finishes of all time in a mad dash to the finish line with eight cars under a blanket, jimmy johnson would beat the victory by two thousandths of a second tied in the closest finish in nascar history, however, during his brief period, the tandem draft represented too extreme a departure from what the public was accustomed to and Nascar would eliminate the strategy the following season, while the tandem draft was relatively unpopular in its day, many fans remember today. the era fondly what has never been seen fondly is the most despised policy nascar has ever implemented the yellow line rule kenny i hate to give bad news but they're telling me they're going to drop you to 21st place for leaving out below from the yellow line I went under Sterling on the right, I was under him, he turned left, what the hell was I going to do?

He ran me on the yellow line, so I finished fifth today, I know that, so it helps with whatever they want to do. The death of Dale Earnhardt convinced Nascar to implement a variety of new safety measures, most of which ended up being extremely beneficial, but a change in the yellow line rule has plagued superspeedway racing ever since in an attempt To reduce the number of accidents, Nascar began to penalize drivers. for passing the platform of the straightaways that were now marked out of bounds with a double yellow line despite their good intentions, this change was an excellent example of how Nascar was trying to outwit the room by adding an unnecessarily complicated judgment call to what It was a car - police problem here comes January we have to run run Kenzit tried to close it they're going to be limit boys that's going to be limit boy I don't know that was a pass below the line I don't know what we're going to do look here, it would be very unpopular black flag in 2003, dale jr was not penalized on this pass for the win five years later, regan smith wouldn't be so lucky after he was forced to go under the line while passing tony stewart for the win, they say tony stewart has won the race tony stewart is the official winner here in talladega they wouldn't allow that step below the yellow line, that's what i was going to do.

They made me go down there, man, I had a nose in them and I could have piled them up. all over the field and I guess it would have been a better finish, I don't know, but I was always told that the rule is that if they make you go down there, then you are the winner of the race, even as recent as the Nascar of the last year. He apparently has no idea how to enforce the rule, as Steny Hamlin went well below the line on this pass for the win and was not penalized. Nascar has said 11 is the winner since its inception.

Countless great moments have been tainted by the perpetual asterisk. that creates the yellow line rule and the worst part is that there is no evidence to suggest that the rule has had any effect on its intended purpose of preventing accidents, if anything the rule has contributed to an increase in accidents since it effectively restricts more cars within a narrower area. space, yes, I have a great idea for everyone. How about we get rid of the yellow line rule? No one really wants to see racing come down to these types of decisions and I don't think we'll crash any more cars than we crash today.

Recent races at Talladega have been the closest thing to a demolition derby. It's not unusual these days for a race to end with fewer than a dozen cars limping across the finish line. Over the past two decades, Nascar has made incredible strides in safety. an unintended consequence of which was the beginning of a new generation of drivers who no longer fear accidents in the era when drivers were forced to use restraint on the track becauseThe consequence of an accident would be to potentially inflict serious injuries on yourself or others. Nowadays, drivers are mostly free to take unthinkable risks on the track and emerge unscathed from any chaos twice a year.

Now drivers begin a race at Talladega knowing they will most likely not make it to the finish line. I'm sorry I couldn't crash more cars today. To fill today's quota for Talladega and Nascar if we haven't crashed at least 50 percent of the cars by the end of the race, we need to extend the race until we crash at least 50 percent of the cars. This is Talladega and this. It's the curse of Talladega back in 1969, we didn't just build a racetrack, we built a monument to the arrogance of humanity, we created something we can never truly conquer so we can spend eternity chasing our endless desire for more, no matter what.

So fast we follow them All roads in Talladega eventually lead to destruction Misfortune and controversy The state of Alabama carries with it a disturbingly bleak past It has been the epicenter of some of the most unforgivable sins we, as a nation, have ever committed in a history that stained as read like the clay on which everything rests and, unlike clay, the mistakes of our past will never be erased, they follow us like painful echoes of a distant time that are somehow still too close to us and We'll never be able to stop hearing them, but maybe if we have enough race cars together in one place we can drown them out even if it's just for a few hours at a time.

Writer Southern writer William Faulkner once put it between pain and nothingness. I'll take the pain people always ask me why I watch nascar why they enjoy something riddled with so many imperfections and to that I simply answer that we can design the perfect racing car but we can never design the perfect driver talladega may not be the greatest example of racing but it is the greatest sign of humanity it is a racetrack where speed, skill and machinery no longer matter it is a place that only seems to become more prosperous through its legacy of disaster it is a battlefield where the mistakes of a few are destined to ending the journeys of many the only place in all the races that produces there are no winners, only survivors, I think Kyle is trying to cross the start and finish line, don't you think so?

I think he will do it there. You come this far and you don't want to be one lap less each year on the Nascar calendar. There are two dates I never forget to tune in to when America's best drivers take on the track they fear most on the land America's natives once called home. 40 racing cars are cursed to recreate their story, which must be at least 30 cars. In that shipwreck, God help you all because there is no place to go. The seminals bided their time in the Everglades for more than 100 years. They emerged in an America that had grown rich from the lands they had claimed long ago, an America that was now searching.

To overcome its centuries-long conquest in 1957, the United States government granted the Seminole tribe federal recognition, extending it special privileges as a sovereign jurisdiction. By the 1970s, the Seminole had begun using these privileges to host high-stakes bingo halls that would become the first Indian casinos, while the majority of the Seminole tribe gradually integrated into modern society, a A small part would continue their traditional way of life in the Everglades, this group would form a new tribe known as the Mikasuki in 2002, the Mikasuki. The tribe was looking to announce their new casino and turn to the world of Nascar seven years later, the Mikasuki car would be the centerpiece of the most incredible moment in Talladega history.

It is April 26, 2009. Americans are recovering from the struggles of the great recession and on this Sunday afternoon, some of them are participating in the Nascar Cup race at Talladega in hopes of witnessing something incredible in this race. They see big pileups, close races, and bizarre oddities that only Talladega can produce. With just two laps left, the crowd sees something truly unprecedented. carl edwards' number 99 car takes the lead and begins to pull away from the group he is pushed by a car that no one has paid attention to all day the mikasuki car driven by rookie brad keselowski after seven years in the sport he has The Mikasuki team has never won a Cub Series race, its best chance to do so now rests on the shoulders of a driver making just his fifth career start.

There are such remote chances of winning that bettors didn't even bother to list them, however, with just one spin. to go the car mikasuki has a single driver on his way to glory the tandem is chased by the army cars and the national guard but they are not going to catch him keslowski pushes edwards to the final stretch he looks tall then he looks short as edward he swerves to block Keslowski he is forced to go down to the double yellow line, he thinks about what happened to Regan Smith the year before, he knows that if he goes below that line, the game is over, Mikasuki's car has been forced to go down until he can possibly run he can't go any further he's been given no choice but to hold his ground can Kozlowski try to win it?

I don't think he can get out until he waits left won this race. Carl Edwards' car was destroyed. I'm not sure. where is carl going maybe he thinks that if he crosses the start and finish line that will count that's what he has what he's doing i want to finish the race and he did it with a great ovation from the crowd shadows of ricky bobby the funny thing about nascar is that If you look long enough, everything always comes back to square one, so