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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.
Talladega got off to a controversial start when a faction of drivers led by Richard Petty threatened not to race on it 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. This potential mutiny was quelled when NASCAR founder Bill France took to the track himself in a car and drove around it at high speeds. Speeds well in excess of 200 mph (320 km/h) were commonplace at Talladega until the 1980s, when a 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.
Talladega hosts both two Nextel Cup and two Busch Series races, NASCAR's top two divisions, annually. Both of the Nextel Cup races are generally about 500 miles (800 km) in length. The names by which the races are called now vary due to the purchase of naming rights, with the most recent Cup race (spring 2004) being referred to as the Aarons 499 after a furniture-rental chain.
The International Motorsports Hall of Fame is adjacent to the Talladega Superspeedway.
See also: List of NASCAR race tracks
Current Races
Records
- 1984 - The 1984 Winston 500 set a still standing NASCAR record with 75 lead changes in a single race.
- 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.
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