Talladega Superspeedway
Address: Speedway Boulevard, Talladega, Alabama 35161
NASCAR Nationwide Series Aaron's 312
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Mountain Dew 250 ARCA Racing Series
33.566944444444 - 86.065833333333Koordinaten: 33 ° 34 '1 " N, 86 ° 3' 57 " W
The Talladega Superspeedway is the largest track in the racing calendar of NASCAR. It is located in the U.S. state of Alabama and was opened in 1969. The oval is 2.66 miles ( 4.27 km ) long. More than 143,000 spectators can watch the Held twice yearly NASCAR races.
Opening race
Even before the first race in 1969, there were problems: In general, the mood among the riders at that time was bad, because they felt underpaid. The driver founded the "Professional Drivers Association " (PDA) and chose Richard Petty president. First, the PDA was the famous Southern 500 in Darlington boycott to achieve the following: Higher prize money, a better insurance protection, introduction of a pension fund for the pilots as washing facilities in the paddock.
The boycott of Darlington fell out because the PDA decided that the premiere of Talladega would make the much better framework for their cause. And indeed, on the first day of training on the new course threw the tires of the fastest large bubbles. No one knew exactly what it was, even the experts at the tire supplier Goodyear were baffled. Most typed out that it was not because of the speed, but on the rough asphalt. This led to heated discussions between Bill France Sr., the head of NASCAR and owner of the track, the tire manufacturer Goodyear, the PDA and the factory teams. The NASCAR and Bill France wanted to start the race in any case and stated that the track and the tires were safe. He even offered to seat himself in a race car to prove it. Goodyear asked to move the race to produce new tires can. When this was rejected, Goodyear asked the driver, no faster than 185 mph (298 km / h) to drive, but it did not keep up. The manufacturers Ford and Chrysler forced neither to drive their pilots (which NASCAR boss France annoyed ), yet they moved their cars back ( what the driver was annoyed ). Instead, they announced that their cars would stay on the line and could be driven by anyone who would like. So it turned out. The only prominent driver who went to the starting line on Sunday was, Bobby Isaac, the rest of the field consisted of little-known riders, most of them from the Grand American series. The race was interrupted repeatedly, officially due to debris on the track. In fact, they wanted to give riders the chance to change the tires before it came to tire damage. The winner of the race was an unknown driver named Richard Brickhouse. After that, nothing more was heard of him, it was his only NASCAR race. The PDA remained without influence after this race, they broke up in 1975 again, without achieving much.
Fastest laps and the introduction of Restrictor Plates
To this day, Bill Elliott holds the record for the fastest lap in a NASCAR race car: 212.809 mph ( 342.483 km / h ). This record was made possible by a steady improvement in the aerodynamics of the car. The record, driven a Ford Thunderbird, has existed since 30 April 1987. On this day qualifying for the Winston 500 was held. The next race day however, there were an accident, which made sure that this will probably be an everlasting record. In lap 22 Bobby Allison had a tire failure and turned. His Buick took off and crashed into the catch fence. Here, some fans were injured by flying debris. Response the NASCAR a so-called " Restrictor Plates" for the two Super Speedway Talladega and the nearly identical Daytona International Speedway to reduce the engine power of the car. Thus, the velocities decreased by about 20 mph back to a round average of about 190 mph (306 km / h).
Due to the reduced engine power see the NASCAR race at Talladega and Daytona slightly different than on the other super speedways. For a single car, it is difficult due to the reduced power from extending a lead over the rest of the field. Most are formed directly after starting large platoons, where drivers drive with minimum distance ( usually less than one meter) in a row. By this drafting, it is possible to achieve a higher speed than with a single car. A car that moves out of the wind behind the front man to overtake, has little chance unless there remain several cars behind him to improve his (and their ) aerodynamics. So it often happens that three and sometimes even four lines of cars driving side by side to overtake. This makes these races require a high degree of concentration of all drivers. And yet it always comes back to mass accidents, known as " the big one ( s)". Since the speeds of the cars despite Restrictor Plate are still very high (about 190 mph = 300 km / h), it is enough when a single driver loses control of his car. The short distance and high speed, it is impossible to avoid. An accident in the 20 cars are involved, is not uncommon. The NASCAR is constantly trying to get this problem under control. Thus, with different sizes of Restictor Plate experimented and the angle of the rear spoiler was required to degrade the aerodynamics of the car. In the late 1990s, there were also experiments with a small spoiler on the roof, which should negatively affect the aerodynamics further, but these attempts could not solve the problem. Significant changes to bring the Car of Tomorrow. The exterior of this vehicle is not as aerodynamic as the today's racing cars. Visually, it looks more like the edgy racing cars of the early 1980s.
In June 2004, Rusty Wallace tested a car without a restrictor plate at Talladega Superspeedway. On the straights, he reached speeds of over 228 mph ( 367 km / h ), which resulted in a round cut of 221 mph ( 356 km / h ).
Autumn 2006 race
The autumn 2006 race on the weekend of October 8, 2006 had several features. The newly applied asphalt placed in free training to higher speeds round than in previous years, which is why short term new Restrictor plates were prescribed with smaller air passages. Background was the fear that the cars could withdraw after an accident from the roadway. In the race itself, there was a "Big One", the significantly minimized among others, the chances Jeff Gordon for the championship. This unpredictability for the championship has been criticized in advance. Thus spoke, among other things Jerry Bonkowski favor of not to drive in the decisive ten races at Talladega. However, the Talladega Speedway in calendar 2011 and is also one of the ten race tracks in the Chase for the Sprint Cup to be.