TALLADEGA: Nascar's Most Feared Track

legend has it that the muskogee indians used to race horses at dry valley in what is now northern alabama the natives referred to the region as talatigi or border town eventually as american colonists began to settle the surrounding lands the border of the native american territory gradually began to shrink by 1813 talitigi had become a battleground as the muskogee erupted in civil war the talitigi natives remained loyal to the americans and helped general andrew jackson defeat the red sticks an opposing faction who were fighting to preserve the sovereignty of the indian territory in 1830 president andrew jackson would repay the favor by ordering the removal of all indigenous tribes from the southern united states disgraced by their compatriots and betrayed by their american allies the tality indians abandoned their ancestral lands never to return according to legend as the tribe gazed over dry valley for the final time the shaman cursed the land and all of its future intruders to be struck with misfortune 130 years later the president of nascar is looking for a new site to construct his most ambitious race track yet after failing to secure a venue 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 of nascar's biggest super speedway where rather than horses men would raise two ton hunks of metal at triple digit speeds bill france probably never knew about the curse hardly anyone did but soon enough in one way or another all of nascar would learn to fear talladega [Music] new leader been waiting all day to say this it's ricky bobby it's shaking big time how did he get through all these cars [Music] the inaugural running 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 nascar's first race at indianapolis in 1994 was such a spectacle that it attracted more entrants than any other event in the history of the sport talladega's inaugural race was also a spectacle but not for the right reasons hey i'm slab shoes and this is an abridged version of my video on what is widely considered to be the worst nascar race in history which was the very first race ever held at talladega if you want all the nitty gritty details the link to the full video is in the description to say that talladega's very first event was controversial would be a massive understatement it was 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 he needs his money back as soon as possible in august just a month before race day talladega holds its very first tests and despite topping out at 195 miles per hour the driver showed concern very early on donnie allison a multi-time winner in nascar's top division said the track is as rough as a cob it'd be a beautiful track if it were smooth the only way they're going to fix it is to repave it meanwhile kel yarbrough noticed that his tires were shredded after just a dozen laps on the track he also noted lots of bumps in the turns not exactly something you want to navigate when you're pushing 200 miles an hour in what passed for safety equipment back in the 1960s nascar's two tire manufacturers goodyear and firestone take note of the tire wear and vow to come back with harder tires to compensate the first open practice for all teams happens in september on the wednesday just before the race on sunday and that tire issue is not resolved guys are noticing chunks of rubber coming off the tires after just a few laps goodyear and firestone fly in harder compounds on thursday and friday but nothing works drivers are getting uppity and by friday firestone backs out citing safety concerns the drivers who just mere weeks ago form the professional drivers association a union-like organization are talking openly of a potential walkout and the president of the pda richard petty the winningest nascar driver in history is in some tense negotiations with bill franz but the straw that broke the camel's back was one exchange between france and bobby allison who won the most recent race just last week france says to bobby quote i think you're just afraid to race bobby was taken aback but it was the quiet leroy yarbrough who stepped up from behind him and swung and hit bill france in the face knocking him to the ground leroy then calmly said to everybody watching boys pack up your stuff we're leaving and just like that almost every single driver put their cars back on the hauler and left the track saved for three holdouts one bobby isaac a soft-spoken man who never joined the pda just because he didn't like the idea of anybody speaking on his behalf to a non-pda driver named jim vandiver driving a car owned by ray foxx and three a young up-and-comer named richard brickhouse richard made his very first nascar top division start ever just last year at rockingham and despite that being his first race on a paved track he finished fourth brickhouse is a pda driver and plans to walk but the dodge factory team pulls him aside and offers him a new ride the brand new dodge charger daytona a winged supercar supposedly capable of speeds exceeding 200 miles an hour but this weekend it won't happen the tires just can't take it brickhouse agrees to the deal and turns scab leaving the pda that afternoon so there it is a 500 mile race at a 2.66 mile track with just three cars in the mix bill france offers fans a special deal if you buy ticket for the inaugural race at talladega you can use that stub to get into the daytona 500 next year with a two-for-one special that good people turned out in droves to watch the show down in alabama but big bill has one more trick up his sleeve to make the race just a little less ridiculous he poaches drivers from the preliminary race on saturday the grand american series who race smaller pony cars on the infield road course not the big track instead of chargers chevelles torinos and road runners they race camaros mustangs darts and even one amc javelin these cars were never intended to drive on a track this big and they can barely do 160 miles an hour with the wind at their backs not to mention there's no way they could pass tech inspection these are cars from a completely different series so big bill france calls an audible and just changes the minimum speed requirements and the inspection templates all with just a simple wave of the hand and just in case any driver is thinking of backing out he offers cash bonuses just to roll off the grid on top of the already stated winnings purse but with so much tension looming in the air over this slap-dash ramshackle affair of a race the stage is set for a disaster to occur and it does but not in the way anybody expected that tire issue is resolved at the 11th hour when goodyear flies in their last hail mary and those tires finally held up there wasn't a single tire failure that day no what did this race in was one of my favorite parts of old nascar racing the scoring error electronic transponders and timing and scoring didn't exist yet so officials would move placards around on a desk to keep track of all the cars if the officials agreed on the running order then it was final but every once in a while they'd get it wrong well that happened in this race that's right with only three cars even being competitive nascar still lost track of jim vandiver and richard brickhouse the two guys competing for the lead bobby isaac was taking it easy just worrying about finishing so he could have some easy points to make a run at the championship with all of his competition sitting at home richard brickhouse has declared the winner by nascar officials but jim vandiver and his car owner ray fox are adamant that they've won and even the radio call with two-time cup series champion ned jarrett in the booth thought jim vandiver was in the lead and i think it's worth noting that jim was driving the older model of dodge charger and was not affiliated with chrysler corp meanwhile brick house was driving the dodge factory entry and it was the first race ever for their new winged wonder car rumors persist that the scoring error was not an accident and chrysler executives sweet talked bill france into manipulating the finish of the race after all they kept some of the intrigue for the event by making a big deal about their new car a lot of people in attendance bought a ticket just because they wanted to see that new daytona rip around the track at nearly 200 miles an hour richard brickhouse's win stands and he is absolutely elated with his first career cub series win and is so sure that he'll be tapped to drive the car full-time next year that he uses his winnings to buy a brand new airplane for himself but unfortunately he never got the call from chrysler or any team for that matter in a year's time he was semi-retired and only racing a few times per year so there it was a disaster of a race made up mostly of field fillers a tire scandal resolved at the last possible second a brand new supercar that nobody got to see the full potential of and of those two competitive cars out there on the track they were driven by two guys nobody had ever 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 so ends the tale of nascar's most disastrous inaugural race and so begins the tale of the talladiga curse over the next half century talladega super speedway would play host to some of the strangest unexplainable and harrowing occurrences 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 of the footage from this era is either missing or not publicly available for many incidents during this time only the stories remain leaving the rest up to our imagination the talladega woes would continue in 1973 which may have been the most tumultuous single year in the history of the track that year's winston 500 earned the dubious distinction as the only race in nascar's modern era to start with a field of 60 cars a decision that would immediately backfire in the ninth lap when one car blew an engine and spilled a trail of oil in front of the super-sized field drivers were instantly sent spinning across the infield grass kicking up a cloud of smoke and dust that made many wrecked cars impossible to see when the dust settled 23 drivers had piled into the wreckage and the talladiga backstretch now resembled the set of a mad max film multiple drivers suffered severe injuries including long-time driver wendell scott who was so badly wounded that he was practically forced into retirement it was an outright miracle that no one died that day the following race at talladega would not be so fortunate just three months later teams and drivers would have to pick up the pieces and run it back in the talladega 500 on lap 13 defending rookie of the year larry smith struck the turn one wall in a single car incident hours later fans and crew members were shocked to discover that smith had tragically become talladega's first fatality commentator ken squire was perplexed as the accident looked nowhere close to deadly smith's fatality was unbeknownst to competitor bobby isaac who would go on to do something even more inexplicable later in the day midway through the race the 1970 champion would impulsively pull his car into the pits it was at that moment in the middle of the race that bobby isaac decided to retire from full-time racing media outlets at the time reported that isaac heard a voice in his head which told him to stop racing immediately after missing the rest of the 1973 season isaac would periodically return to the track for a handful of races per year in 1977 the 45 year old driver collapsed while exiting his race car and would be pronounced 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 circuit world record days later donahue was fatally wounded from a crash while practicing for the austrian grand prix on nearly the same day as donahue's accident beloved nascar driver tiny lund was struck and killed after another car collided with his driver's side door on the talladega 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 following the death of tiny lund the speedway spirits will look more kindly 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 drivers would remarkably be spared on the track there were never any guarantees inside of it during the 1975 winston 500 richard petty's car caught fire in the pits as petty's brother-in-law randy owens rushed to douse the flames with a fire hose the nearby pressurized water tank exploded launching owens 15 feet in the air and killing him instantly in 1977 veteran driver david cisco was competing at talladega when he was greeted by a terrible sight in the infield his mother had been struck and killed by a pickup truck near the garage area cisco was apparently so devastated that he would never attempt another nascar race unbelievably this wouldn't be the last pickup truck related death at talladega in 1996 the president of arca was t-boned in the parking lot and would later go on to die from his injuries along with its string of inexplicable tragedy the early days of talladega also housed some of the most bizarre mysteries that stock car racing has ever known on the morning of the 1974 talladega 500 crew members awoke to an unnerving development the race cars of nearly a dozen drivers had been sabotaged teams inspected their vehicles and discovered slash tires cut oil lines and gas tanks filled with sand the extent of the sabotage was only fully realized during the race as many drivers began experiencing mechanical failures as soon as they hit the track miraculously no drivers were injured in the fiasco but sabotaging so many race cars at a track as fast as talladega was practically attempted mass murder authorities launched an immediate investigation to find the perpetrator but were unable to identify even a single suspect whoever sabotaged the cars did not leave a trace of evidence and to this day the talladega tamperer remains at large following the worst vehicular sabotage in nascar history the track amped up security for future events and while they succeeded at keeping future delinquents out of the garage they didn't think to check whether one could wind up behind the wheel prior to the 1982 winston 500 a few drivers expressed confusion at an unfamiliar name on the entry list for the race a man by the name of l.w wright had purchased a race car for twenty thousand dollars which he entered in that week's race at talladega despite claiming to be a seasoned stock car racing veteran no other driver had ever heard of him however in an age before detailed record keeping it was somewhat plausible that a driver could have honed their skills in some middle of nowhere town the mysterious driver managed to qualify for the race despite wrecking his car on just the second lap around the track as the crew was repairing the car for race day wright seemed unable to answer basic questions that any driver should have known suspicion 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 lapped by the leaders and was ordered by nascar to retire from the race so l.w wright again given the black flag as he passes by us and wright has been ordered to the pitarian after pulling into the pits wright got out of his car slipped into the infield and was never seen again it turned out that l.w wright was an imposter and had conned investors out of nearly 50 000 so that he could race alongside nascar's biggest stars to this day the true identity of l.w wright remains unknown his alias persists as one name in the nascar record books that may always be shrouded in mystery after letting what was essentially an average joe mess around in a sanctioned professional sporting event nascar would tighten up their standards for who exactly was allowed on the track however while paying more scrutiny to the drivers in the race cars there was one other car they forgot about well the pace car we understand has been stolen the uh officials are not driving this thing and somebody has actually gone to the pace car and stole it at the 1986 winston 500 20 year old darren crowder stole the pace car that had been left unoccupied on pit road he completed a full circuit at over 100 miles per hour before the police set up a blockade and took him into custody during the whole bewildering spectacle the crowd of 133 000 fans cheered wildly growing up we're all told to respect the law of the land but sometimes you just got a root for the rebel [Music] after the muskogee indians were forced to vacate their lands most obeyed the order and subjected themselves to the infamous trail of tears some of the natives however refused to go west to the indian territory and instead chose to keep their destiny in their own hands a few muskogee turned their sights instead towards the south in the mostly uninhabited territory of florida the subtropical peninsula had become known as a safe haven for refugees of the expanding american empire together with various other displaced natives and escaped african slaves the remnants of the muskogee would integrate into a new tribe the seminal although they too were forced to abandon their way of life like all the others at the very least for the time being they were free in 1819 spain ceded the florida territory to the united states and concerns of relocation immediately returned although the seminole briefly received a reservation on the peninsula it wouldn't be long until the federal government once again demanded they move out west after already sacrificing so much 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 u.s military as the american troops marched into florida the seminole warriors would soon be outnumbered by as much as ten to one needless to say they were heavy underdogs he's gonna have to do it he cannot do it still parsons is gonna win his first winston cup race there's the checkers talladega super speedway has always been unusually favorable to underdogs the relative ease with which drivers can navigate the track opens the door for the occasional david to contend with nascar's goliath in addition to the fluke win of richard brickhouse in the inaugural race five other drivers would score their one and only career victory in the first 20 years of competition at talladega by far the most of any track in the sport in the early days of the track winning at talladega was a matter of endurance completing 500 miles at the longest circuit in the sport was a daunting task for even the most dominant race teams putting yourself in position to win was often as simple as overcoming the attrition of your competitors eventually most teams figured out how to make their machines go the distance and the name of the game shifted to speed in spite of its many trials and tribulations talladega super speedway has always managed to draw on fans for one simple reason there's no other place on earth where you can witness so many cars go so fast the track's 33 degree corners allow drivers to maintain incredible momentum throughout the circuit talladega may be the only track in all of racing where you can complete an entire lap without ever touching the brake pedal the colossal oval is capable of producing such extreme speeds that most motorsports don't feel comfortable racing on it in 1980 indycar had plans for a talladega race they would soon scrap the idea forever after it became clear that the cars would be moving so fast that any accident essentially meant certain death stock cars are considerably slower than open wheel cars but soon enough they too would begin approaching the danger zone bobby isaac managed to break the 200 mile per hour barrier as early as 1970 but rule changes to the cars brought speeds down to the 180s for most of the decade gradually though speeds began to creep back up and in 1982 benny parsons would once again reach 200 becoming the first nascar driver to eclipse the mark in a qualifying lap one year later kale yarbrough would reach 202 surpassing bobby isaac's 13 year 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 so much faster than the competition that after a ruptured oil pump forced him into the pits elliot would overcome a five-mile deficit under greene to retake the lead by the end of the race even after burning several minutes on pit road elliott had just ran the fastest race in nascar history completing 500 miles in just over 2 hours and 41 minutes two years later bill elliott would complete a two and two-thirds mile lap at talladega in under 45 seconds setting 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 unwelcome territory talladega it means speed it means competition and speed's certainly something we've seen a lot of this weekend larry eight drivers exceeded 210 miles per hour the identical front row as last year bill elliott on the pole and bobby allison alongside bobby allison 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 3rd 1987 bobby allison came inches away from becoming one with the fans bobby allison with a horrible crash here on the front stretch it has torn out a complete section of protective railing after a mechanical failure sent his car spinning down the trioval bobby allison found himself at the center of the most frightening near-miss in nascar history the talladega pace had become so fast that even a slight aberration was enough to transform any of the 40 vehicles on track into a 2 ton projectile just as everyone was starting to forget about the talladega curse the track would produce an incident so ominous that it would fundamentally alter the future of stock car racing one may consider it benevolent of the curse to spare everyone on that day but the story of talladega's most dangerous race doesn't end here following bobby allison's spine chilling accident 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 that his father cheated death six years later fade would repay the favor a sad note in sports today stock car racer davey allison died this morning after the helicopter he was piloting crashed yesterday in the infield of the talladega speedway down in alabama davey allison a great champion and a good friend of ours was 32. although his life and career were cut tragically short davey allison's legacy will always be etched in the 1987 winston 500 possibly the most influential single race in nascar history bill elliott would become the last nascar driver to ever reach the 212 mark after this race super speedways entered the age of the restrictor plate a new component to the intake manifold designed to limit horsepower and keep speeds under 200 miles per hour this thin metal plate would completely change the game and spawn a form of racing so sensationally unique that no other motorsport in the world even comes close to replicating it plate racing takes traditional racing technique and turns it on its head it's a format that can allow the 30th place car to be within two seconds of the leader featuring lap after lap of three wide traffic rather than raw driving ability winning a restrictor play race relies on the driver's patience timing and decision making compared to the spectacular displays of speed in the past talladiga racing would now resemble a high velocity game of chess restrictor plates would usher in a new era of nascar and along with it a new era of mayhem wow not what you want to see out of your windshield oh my gosh while plate racing was intended to make the sports safer super speedways arguably became more treacherous than ever before the frequency of wrecks skyrocketed as drivers now had far less margin for error in the close quarters traffic with so many opportunities for calamity the drivers would start discovering inconceivable methods to wreck a race car talladega had always been a place that pushed the limits of what was possible on a nascar track and the early 90s saw a remarkable string of accidents where drivers would test the literal limits of the track the 1993 die hard 500 was nascar's first race at talladega after the death of davey allison the event would be remembered most for two harrowing incidents on lap 69 rookie driver stanley smith would suffer a head-on collision into the turn one wall the accident eerily occurred in the same part of the track as larry smith's fatal crash 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 entirely however despite involving a driver nearly losing his life this accident is most well known for something that had not happened in a nascar race in a quarter century there is one car that has gone over the wall as you see in that i can't remember the last time we saw a car out of the speedway yet no i can't either jimmy horton's number 32 chevy had left the race track the accident compelled nascar to install a catch fence in the talladega corners the new enclosure would come in handy just three years later as it prevented ricky craven's car from also exiting the circuit in a similar crash however back in the 93 die hard 500 the mayhem was only half over on lap 132 neil bonnett's car was sent tumbling into the tribal catch fence thankfully after bobby allison's accident nascar had strongly reinforced the line between the spectators and the action narrowly escaping yet another tragedy while it came very close this die hard 500 did not live up to its moniker the event would go on to be remembered as the race where cars seemingly refused to stay inside the track the next time the cub series returned to talladega mark martin would discover the true meaning of going inside the track once again nascar would have to make some modifications kaladega has the strange ability to send cars in seemingly any direction in a few cases that direction would be up is he going to win the winston 500 they come through the triumville checkered is waving ernie evan wins and rusty smith it gets airborne the blow over is one of the most ethereal moments that 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 of our strength to get them to budge a single inch and to think that something as light as air could be powerful enough to lift a 2-ton machine off the earth well you just have to see it to believe it at the speeds nascar drivers travel at talladega it happens more often than you'd guess well daryl 737 will of course it's designed to take off but it will take off at 160 some miles an hour uh these cars are running 185 and the roof flaps do their job to keep that car from getting way up in the air wow man in 1996 the talladega curse finally caught up to bill elliott who suffered a broken leg after his car soared across the backstretch grass but the most spectacular blowover in talladega history belongs to a different elliot [Music] elliot over once and a half and on his roof in 2003 elias sadler would get over a full second of air time as his car executed a near flawless pirouette the number 38 eminem's ford must have covered the length of a football field without touching the ground the following season sadler returned to talladega and inexplicably became the only driver in history to blow over at the same track two years in a row this time finishing the race in style he said he wanted to finish this race with all four tires on the ground he did he just didn't keep him there the whole time it's one thing to watch a blow over as a spectator but to experience one 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 an airborne car many drivers report a brief moment when everything falls silent at the instant in which the mighty racing machine is briefly wrestled away from the dominion of gravity it's as if the driver has entered the window to another realm do you think that if they listened hard enough they would hear the faint thumping of horses galloping on the alabama clay of course in moments like these most drivers have other things to worry about upside down ever since bobby allison's accident nascar has been continually trying to eliminate the blow over but try as they might talladega has always found a way to send cars flying oh legato gets turned legato is upside down [Music] while more blow-overs happen at talladega than anywhere else the track's most iconic accidents are of a far different breed ever since restrictor plates introduced the age of pack racing there's been a monster lurking in every super speedway race it's the reason why most drivers teams and owners dread talladega sunday oh kyle caught up the field accordions back man trouble stewart in the wall here we go here we go robbie gordon at the 33 harvick is around here we go guys the big one they call it the big one a massive pile up that can wipe out more than a dozen cars in the blink of an eye talladega may have the most room of any nascar track but when the big one strikes drivers often find themselves with nowhere to go it can happen anywhere at any time all it takes is for one driver to make one mistake it's as simple as someone mistiming a block sticking their nose in a gap too small or inexplicably rejoining the pack at half speed whatever the cause the outcome remains the same multiple drivers days are ended by something they had no way of preventing modern day nascar fields race 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 by the 2000s the accidents started to become truly enormous the 2002 2003 and 2005 talladega spring races each saw a pileup involving more than 20 drivers with the 03 race consuming a cub series record 27 cars however the largest wreck in modern nascar history would happen at a talladega race in what is now the nascar xfinity series the division is essentially nascar's minor league and in the 2002 ahrens 312 inexperience would contribute to the mother of all pileups on lap 14 johnny sauter's blue chevy slid sideways and started tumbling in front of the entire field drivers began swerving into each other to avoid the carnage and quickly block the track when it was all said and done 31 cars were collected nearly three-quarters of the entire field out of the few survivors most would fall off the pace with mechanical issues the race eventually boiled down to just two competitive cars a scenario that may never occur in another nascar race while talladega races have increasingly turned into wreck fest it's curious to consider that when it so desires nascar's most feared track is capable of leaving everyone unscathed the 1997 winston 500 was the first race in talladega history to run caution free after crashing into the infield just three years prior mark martin would break bill elliott's record for the fastest nascar race completing 500 miles in 2 hours and 39 minutes in the following five seasons two more talladega races would run caution free as of now it's the last track in nascar history to ever achieve this feat it really makes you wonder does talladega create the mayhem or do we we saw a lot of communication on that restart that first initial start with stuart haas teams all working together to get in line on the front you see them they're pulling away jeff let's show you how far this first group of stuart haas racing has driven away when everyone chooses to cooperate we are capable of achieving remarkable things in an ideal world we could do anything caution free but there's a reason why idealism is so hopelessly fragile while it takes everyone to avoid destruction it only takes one to create it as is the case with most things in america the best you can do is survive what you got ain't nothing new this country's hard on people you can't stop what's coming [Music] how is it that when we find ourselves in the biggest place we've ever known we still run out of room americans have always been infatuated with the concept of manifest destiny the 19th century ideal that the united states should inevitably span from sea to shining sea this grand vision of america was eventually realized at tremendous expense to those who originally roamed those lands even now as we sit atop our new york skyscrapers and california mansions manifest destiny is still very much alive we apply to what we wear what we drive how we conduct business enough is never enough we are always marching forward to some glorious indeterminate outcome why stop at building the biggest race track in the world when you can build one even bigger steeper wider and faster our conquest for more never ends some call it greed others call it destiny the driver's strike at talladega's inaugural contest gave many others a unique opportunity to race in the cubs series one of those newcomers was a 23 year old richard childress who would use the prize money from his big break to open up his own racing team in 1981 childress retired from racing and handed over the reins of his number three car to nascar's newest champion a driver by the name of dale earnhardt with richard childress racing earnhardt would go on to 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 most intertwined with daytona but one of his most impressive feats was coming the closest of anyone to conquering talladega despite hating restrictor play racing more so than any other driver earnhardt was undeniably the best at it he was so skilled at drafting that some competitors swore that he could literally see the air coming off the cars in october 2000 talladega would be the site of his final career victory and possibly the most impressive display of racing mastery the sport had ever seen earnhardt would charge 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 well you know what tends to happen when someone comes close to conquering talladega this is undoubtedly one of the toughest announcements that i've ever personally had to make but after the accident and turned four at the end of the daytona 500 we've lost dale earnhardt the white flag is up final lap in talladega who's it going to be lavoni earnhardt jr steward or maybe somebody out of the pack look at this move by junior at the white flag after suffering such terrible loss the talladega spirits would shine favorably on dale earnhardt jr who would immediately carry on his father's legacy one year after dale's senior's final victory dale jr would score his first talladega victory one of four wins in a row at the track for the new pied piper of super speedway racing dale jr's remarkable success on nascar's biggest stage would make him an instant fan favorite the newest racing superstar would carry both talladega and the sport into its present-day incarnation hey ricky bobby good to see you again thanks man you still owe me that 30 bucks oh no man you said that was a gift you're a dirty liar by now talladega had become so infamous in pop culture that someone was bound to make a movie about it 2006 saw the release of the will ferrell comedy talladega nights a film that features a winless driver growing resentful of his more successful teammate strangely enough in nascar's first race at talladega after the film's release a near identical storyline would play out in reality back in the 2006 daytona 500 brian vickers is leading with just 15 laps to go and has a chance to score his first career victory in the biggest race of the year unfortunately for brian his teammate jimmy johnson passes him and goes on to win instead two months later at the spring talladega race vickers once again has an opportunity to get his first win now will vickers be the good soldier and follow jeff gordon home or does he want his first win that bad he's got to get his first win he takes the lead with just two lobs to go only to get past once again by jimmy johnson later in the year the hendrick teammates returned to talladega to find themselves nose to tail behind dale jr in the closing laps both johnson and junior are in a tight championship battle and it's up to vickers to help his teammate complete the pass for the win what happened next wasn't exactly a shake-and-bake it takes jimmy johnson talladega has always been known for its sensational finishes since 1980 about a third of all talladega races have ended in a last lap pass such a scenario is portrayed to great effect in talladega nights which makes use of the track's most distinct feature while most tracks are designed with the finish line in the center of the front straightaway talladega's is about a thousand feet farther down the track towards the entrance of turn one while it may seem like a small alteration this unique design aspect has affected the outcomes of countless races it's amazing what can happen if you leave someone with just a little more room to run the name seminal can be traced back to the spanish word cimarrone or runaway they were a tribe composed of wildly different people who all shared a single unifying vision a refusal to be conquered the seminal warriors fought valiantly they pushed the us military to the most challenging and expensive conflict with any indigenous group in the nation's history however eventually the seminal losses had become catastrophic and they simply couldn't outlast the overwhelming resources of the united states one by one the seminal chiefs were captured and forced to surrender by 1843 nearly the entire seminole tribe were forcibly relocated to the creek reservation in oklahoma only a small fraction managed to evade government capture by fleeing into the everglades a vast stretch of swampy wilderness considered by american settlers to be inhospitable after nearly a decade of costly fighting the military decided that further pursuit was no longer worth the trouble by the end of the war as few as 100 seminoles remained the last of the runaways throughout the rest of the 19th century all of the other indigenous people in america would be forced to submit to government rule eventually the everglades seminals would remain as the last free tribe within u.s territory despite all of their power and might america could never conquer the seminal people there are some things in this world that you simply cannot control [Music] since its very first race nascar has always struggled to control talladega the track has served as the ultimate fulcrum for the sport's greatest conflict of interest by creating the world's most spectacular track they simultaneously created the world's most dangerous track nascar has always straddled the fine line between entertainment and safety throughout the history of the track the sanctioning body has been in a constant balancing act in trying to prevent the next talladega catastrophe while maintaining the track's unique appeal the continual addition of rules and regulations has resulted in a style of racing that looks completely unrecognizable to the sport's humble beginnings and i mean guys are slamming into one another they're hitting each other in the corner eventually just what happened is going to happen it's going to happen again too probably before the day is over many drivers today feel that talladega racing is a glorified crapshoot which is somewhat emblematic of modern nazcar as a whole you know look these championships aren't like winning like petty and earnhardt used to win them and you know it comes down to one race and it came down to one race for us tonight and came up short how far are we willing to compromise the merit of competition to manufacture a more entertaining spectator product nascar is always trying to tweak the sport to make races more exciting but there comes a point where all the micromanagement becomes counterproductive it's just it's idiotic to be out here doing this anyway trying to put on some cute show for whatever the hell this is it's stupid there's no sense in doing this one of the most defining aspects of present day talladega has been the looming threat of controversy where nascar's contrived bureaucracy ends up spoiling the race itself in 2003 nascar would end its policy of allowing drivers to race back to the caution flag as the practice was becoming too dangerous instead the field would be frozen at the moment of caution a change that would reach a breaking point the next spring at talladega when the caution came out with five laps to go fans were thrilled as dale jr appeared to make the pass for the lead however the lead was instead awarded to jeff gordon as he was slightly ahead of the exact moment of caution the race would not be restarted as gordon would coast to a very unpopular win as frustrated fans pelted the track with debris nascar would later institute the green white checker rule to minimize the chances of races ending under caution a policy that has since undergone numerous confusing and inconsistent changes over the years one of the most baffling officiating decisions for any nascar finish happened at the 2016 xfinity series race at talladega at first it looked to be an amazing feel-good story with underdog driver brennan poole threading the needle to score his first nascar win however in an unprecedented reversal nascar would award the victory instead to eliot sadler the officials had bizarrely frozen the field less than a thousand feet from the finish line and in that instant sadler's car was briefly in the lead despite being in the process of crashing to this day brennan poole is still searching for his first win and by that much eliot sadler a winner over brennan pooled at talladega not even nascar's biggest stars can avoid the jinx of talladega controversy looking for his fifth win at talladega later in the 04 season dale jr would avenge his dubious runner-up finish by winning the fall talladega race only to once again wind up at odds with the sanctioning body in his victory lane interview junior would drop an expletive on live tv what does it mean to win here not only once but to win here five times well i don't mean right now daddy's done one here 10 times so a mistake that would normally be a non-issue but it just so happened that this was the year of janet jackson's wardrobe malfunction at the super bowl and networks at the time were hyper-vigilant at maintaining their standards and practices as a result junior would be docked 25 driver points which knocked him out of the championship lead 2004 was the best season of junior's career and he may very well have won the title if all of us weren't so sensitive over a four-letter word so the chase for the championship is over and here's how it ended up 2004 also marked the beginning of nascar's chase for the cup which eventually morphed into what we now know as the controversial nascar playoffs the 2014-16 incarnation of the playoffs was very likely the most busted and unfair championship format in the history of motorsports in october 2015 the system would be painfully exposed that where else but talladega this era decided to make talladega a cut-off race for the next round meaning that some drivers would be forced to do whatever they could to avoid elimination on the final restart kevin harvick has a serious mechanical issue he can barely keep up at pace car speed and is practically guaranteed to get eliminated unless he does something dire so with no other conceivable way to save his season harvick swerves into the car beside him and causes a 10 car pileup the caution comes out harvick coasts to the finish line and advances to the next round and quite possibly the worst nascar finish in the past decade you can hardly blame a guy for doing it he's either going to make it if he does that and wreck some people going slow or he's not gonna make it if it goes green for two laps but um i don't know just it just feels like we kind of lost control on the situation you know look these aren't these championships aren't like winning like petty and earnhardt used to win them modern-day nascar is always throwing curveballs and drivers will adapt to do whatever gets them closer to winning one of the most peculiar changes in super speedway strategy was the brief rise of tandem drafting following the release of nascar's carve tomorrow drivers begin to realize that the flat nose design allowed the cars to lock bumpers at tracks like talladega and gain an extra boost in speed the tandem era would truly begin at the 2010 errands 499 a race that saw a record 88 lead changes by the next season drivers had mastered the tandem leading to one of the most unbelievable finishes of all time [Applause] in a mad dash to the finish line with eight cars under a blanket jimmy johnson would edge out the win by two one thousandths of a second tied for the closest finish in nascar history however during its brief stint tandem drafting represented too extreme of a departure from what audiences were used to and nascar would eliminate the strategy in the following season while tandem drafting was relatively unpopular in its time many fans today look back on the era fondly what has never been viewed fondly is the single most despised policy that nascar has ever implemented the yellow line rule kenny i hate to deliver bad news but they're telling me that they're going to drop you back to 21st for dropping under the yellow line i went underneath sterling right i was underneath him he turned left what the hell was i going to do he'd run me in the yellow line so i finished fifth today i know that so help whatever the hell they want to do the death of dale earnhardt convinced nascar to implement a variety of new safety measures most of these ended up being extremely beneficial but one change the yellow line rule has plagued super speedway races ever since in an attempt to reduce the number of accidents nascar started penalizing drivers for passing on the apron of the straightaways which they now marked as out of bounds with a double yellow line despite their good intentions this change was a prime example of nascar trying to outsmart the room by adding a needlessly complicated judgment call to what was a self-policing issue here comes january's gotta run run kenzit tried to close him up it's going to be borderline guys that's going to be borderline boy i don't know that was a pass under the line i don't know what we're going to see here it would be very unpopular to black flagging in 2003 dale jr was not penalized on this pass for the win five years later regan smith would not be so fortunate after he was forced below the line while passing tony stewart for the win they are saying tony stewart has won the race tony stewart is the official winner here at talladega they would not allow that pass below the yellow line that's what i was going with i got forced down there man i had a nose inside of them and i could have piled up the whole field and i guess that would have been a cooler finish i don't know but i always got told that the rule is if you get forced down there then you're the winner of the race even as recently as last year nascar still has seemingly no idea how to actually enforce the rule as steny hamlin went way below the line on this pass for the win and wasn't penalized nascar has said the 11 is the winner since its inception countless great moments have been tainted by the perpetual asterisk which the yellow line rule creates and the worst part is there's 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 as it effectively constricts more cars within a narrower space yeah i got a great idea for everybody how about we just get rid of the yellow line rule nobody really wants to see the races come down to these type of decisions and i don't think it's going to crash more cars than we crashed today recent races at talladega have been about as close as you can get to a demolition derby it's not uncommon these days for a race to end with less 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 ushering in a new generation of drivers who no longer fear accidents back in the day drivers were forced to use restraint on the track because the consequence of wrecking would be potentially inflicting serious injury on yourself or others today drivers are mostly free to take unthinkable risks on track and walk away from any mayhem completely unharmed twice a year now drivers start a race at talladega knowing that they most likely won't make it to the finish sorry we couldn't crash more cars today we didn't fill the quota for today for talladega and nascar if we haven't crashed at least 50 percent of the field by the end of the race we need to extend the race until we at least crash 50 percent of the cars this is talladega and this is the talladega curse all the way back in 1969 we didn't just construct a racetrack we constructed a monument to mankind's arrogance we created something that we can never truly conquer so that we can spend eternity chasing our endless desire for more no matter how fast we follow them all roads at talladega eventually lead to destruction misfortune and controversy the state of alabama carries with it a hauntingly somber past it has been the epicenter of some of the most unforgivable sins that we as a nation have ever committed a history that stained as read as the clay on which it all lies and unlike clay the mistakes of our past will never wash out they follow us as painful echoes from a far away time that somehow still too close to us we can never unhear them but maybe if we get enough race cars together in one place we can drown them out even if it's just for a few hours at a time the writer the southern writer william faulkner once put it between grief and nothing i will take grief people always ask me why i watch nascar why i enjoy something riddled with so many imperfections and to that i simply answer that we can design the perfect race car but we can never design the perfect driver talladega may not be the greatest display of racing but it is the greatest display of humanity it's a race track where speed skill and machinery no longer matter it's a venue that only seems to grow more prosperous through its legacy of disaster it's a battleground where the mistakes of the few are destined to end the journeys of the many the only place in all of racing that produces no winners only survivors i think kyle's trying to cross the start finish line don't you think yeah i believe he is going to do it there it is you go this far you don't want to be one lap short [Applause] every year on nascar's schedule there are two dates that i never forget to tune in when america's greatest drivers are confronted with the one track they fear most in the land that america's native people once called home 40 race cars are cursed to reenact their story that must be at least 30 cars in that wreck god help all of them because there's no place to go the seminal bided their time in the everglades for more than 100 years they emerged in an america that had grown rich off the lands they had claimed long ago an america that was now looking to move on from its centuries-long conquest in 1957 the seminole tribe was granted federal recognition by the us government extending them special privileges as a sovereign jurisdiction by the 1970s the seminole had begun using these privileges to host high-stakes bingo halls which would go on to be the very first indian casinos while most of the seminole tribe gradually integrated into modern society a small part would continue their traditional way of life in the everglades this group would go on to form a new tribe known as the mikasuki in 2002 the mikasuki tribe was looking to advertise their new casino and turn to the world of nascar seven years later the mikasuki car would be the centerpiece of the most unbelievable moment in talladega history it's april 26 2009 americans are reeling from the struggles of the great recession and on this sunday afternoon a few of them turn on the nascar cup series race at talladega hoping to witness something incredible in this race they see big pileups close racing and bizarre oddities that only talladega can seem to produce with just two laps left the audience sees something truly unprecedented the 99 car of carl edwards rockets into the lead and starts pulling away from the pack he's being pushed by a car no one has paid any mind to all day the mikasuki car driven by rookie brad keselowski after seven years in the sport the mikasuki team has never won a cub series race their best opportunity to do so is now resting on the shoulders of a driver making just his fifth career start going into today there's such long shots to win that oddsmakers didn't even bother listing them however with just one lap to go the mikasuki car has just one driver standing in its way of glory the tandem are pursued by the army and national guard cars but they're not going to catch him keslowski pushes edwards to the home stretch he looks high then he looks low as edward swerves down to block keslowski is forced all the way down to the double yellow line he thinks about what happened to regan smith the year prior he knows that if he goes below that line it's game over the mikasuki car has been forced as far down as it can possibly run it can go no further it has been given no choice but to stand its ground can kozlowski try to win it i don't think he can step out until he waits to the left [Music] [Music] won this race carl edwards car destroyed not sure where carl's going maybe he thinks if he runs across the start finish line that'll count that's what he's got what he's doing i want to finish the race and he did to a standing ovation from the crowd shades of ricky bobby the funny thing about nascar is that if you watch long enough everything always comes full circle [Music] so you

Channel: EmpLemon

Views: 1,770,356

Keywords: EmpLemon, NASCAR, Talladega, Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Talladega Nights

Id: w0d_AUAHVeo

Length: 61min 10sec (3670 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 01 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/TheJumpingPenis]

Been waiting for this all day. Time to grab a beer.

[u/1nf1niteCS]

Just finished it, the way he ended that video was perfect.

[u/-ragingpotato-]

That ending was brilliant, can't believe I never knew about that symbolism of the Edwards wreck, the Miccosukee car winning at Talladega after indirectly wrecking the Army car. Wack.

[u/HubbaDuck97]

Only half way through this and man, it is so good

Really capturing the history and fear that Talladega has made over the decades

[u/gilbyus]

I didn’t exactly know where the full circle was going with the tribe, until we got to the end. Never once would I have made that connection. Beautiful video.

[u/Myklukha]

God that ending was SO satisfying. Gave me chills like a blockbuster movie

[u/Busso_V6]

emp never misses. the ending blew my mind wide open

[u/thepandaken]

Saw this and after the end I had to come here. Awesome symbolism I never noticed before.

If you liked this one, the same guy made two other great NASCAR videos:

Nascar and the Art of Revenge

there will Never Ever be another driver like Dale Earnhardt

That last one gets me cuttin' onions every time

[u/nascarfan88421032]

S1ap and Emp collaborating together? Imagine saying that in 2018