Talladega’s History Taunts Drivers
Submitted by NASCAR Ranting and Raving Blog
Talladega Superspeedway is the site of this week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup extravaganza.
Talladega is a 2.66 mile tri-oval with the start/finish line located just past the tri-oval before entering turn 1. Many a race has been won with this unique placement of the start/finish line as it allows more time to complete the pass coming off of turn 4 down the front stretch.
This track is rich in history as well. When it first opened in 1969 there was a boycott by 37 of the regular NASCAR drivers because there was not a tire made by either Firestone or Goodyear that could manage the high speeds of the cars on the track and the drivers were scared, period and they left.
NASCAR scrambled and found enough drivers to replace the ones that left and ran the race anyway. Richard Brickhouse eventually won the caution filled event for his one and only win in NASCAR’s premier division. If you want a really good first hand account of the face to face stand off between Big Bill France and some of NASCAR’s greatest drivers then you should read Tom Higgins’ account - you won’t be sorry.
Another driver by the name of Bobby Isaac also participated in that inaugural event in 1969 and went on to win the Championship in 1970 but Bobby’s Talladega story doesn’t end there. In 1973, while racing at Talladega, Bobby suddenly pulled off the track into the pits, got out of his race car and left. Apparently he had heard a voice while he was driving telling him to get out of the car or he would die. That was essentially the end of Bobby’s NASCAR career. He raced in a few races in the following years, but never at Talladega.
Talladega is also the site of Dale Earnhardt’s last victory before his tragic death in the 2001 Daytona 500. That last victory by Earnhardt was an exclamation point on his career. Earnhardt was in 18th with 4 laps left and came through the field to take over the top spot going into turn one on the final lap.
There is a little known fact about the car Earnhardt raced that day. The car is still in existence and is part of the Richard Childress Racing Museum and when you see it, it is all nice and clean and perfect unlike its appearance when Earnhardt drove it into victory lane 8 years ago with big donuts on the side of the car that scraped away his famed number 3 decal. The reason why the car has been restored is because after the race the crew back at the race shop cleaned it up, repainted it, and put it back into regular rotation, with its next race being as the back-up car for the 2001 Daytona 500. Yep, that car was at the track in the hauler when Dale died, never to be driven by him again.
Talladega is not so much about the speed as it is about the draft. Two cars running bumper to bumper can run a lot faster than a car all by itself and that is why it is important to race with other drivers that you trust because they will be hitting you in the backside, or vice-versa, in order to go faster. Crews re-enforce the front and rear bumpers at this track just for that reason.
With a NASCAR mandated restrictor plate between the carburetor and intake manifold restricting airflow in order to keep the cars less than 200 mph the cars will be fairly even, especially since the aerodynamic packages for each make of car is virtually the same.
This reduction in horsepower caused by the restrictor plate will make the cars run more closely together so look for the entire 43 car field to be separated by less than a second for most of the day. And with the cars running this close together at speeds in excess of 190 mph anything can happen, it is usually called “The Big One” when it does because when these cars wreck they not only take out themselves but many of their fellow competitors too.
The driver’s only friend out there is his spotter, but even the best of them can’t prevent The Big One when it does happen because it happens so quick that by the time the spotter keys his mic to begin talking about potential danger the cars are already wrecking.
Drivers to look out for here are any of the Hendrick cars (Earnhardt 88, Gordon 24, Johnson 48, and even Mears 5), Kurt Busch (2), Tony Stewart (20), Kyle Busch (18), Kevin Harvick (29), and any of the Roush/Fenway cars (Edwards 99, Biffle 16, Kenseth 17, McMurray 26, and Ragan 6).
With that being said, there are just too many variables at Talladega to clearly pick a winner and if I were a Chase contender I would consider myself a winner if I left there with a finish in the top 15.
When it is all said and done, this race may not determine the eventual Cup winner but it has the potential to ruin the chances of some of the Cup hopefuls.
Here is the last quote for the Full Throttle Amp’d Adrenaline Contest;
4) “We had a good run at the beginning of the run, but as the run went on and on, it got tighter and tighter. The last pit stop we hit a tire in the left front, and we just had to do anything we could to stay in the top 10.”
I’ll re-post all four of these again on Saturday. Remember you must have your answers in to me by midnight EST this Sunday.
Photo Credit: Bobby Isaac during a Test Session at Darlington in 1964 - I have no freakin’ clue who took this shot or where it came from - I just kind of accidentally found it somewhere on ‘the net’ one night. I really want to know who took this picture because there were a ton of others like it and I can’t find the site anymore, so if you know please tell me!
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