Talladega Superspeedway, Oval

Talladega Superspeedway lies near Lincoln in eastern Alabama, about 10 miles north of the town of Talladega and a short drive east of Birmingham. NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. drove the project as a bigger, faster sibling to Daytona, breaking ground in 1968 on the site of a former military airfield whose old runways still survive in the surrounding road pattern. The track opened with its first race in September 1969. At 2.66 miles it is longer than both Daytona and Indianapolis, and its 33-degree banked corners, paired with a sweeping 4,000-foot backstretch, make it the longest and fastest oval on the NASCAR schedule. A curving frontstretch creates a slight extra kink in front of the main grandstand. The combination of length and banking produces enormous speeds; it was here that Bill Elliott set a NASCAR qualifying record in 1987, a benchmark that pushed the sport toward restrictor plates and later tapered spacers to slow the cars. The huge oval hosts two NASCAR Cup Series weekends each year, the spring race and the autumn GEICO 500 and YellaWood 500 events, where pack racing routinely bunches the field nose-to-tail. Away from race weekends the vast complex is used for testing, manufacturer days and filming, and it lent its name to the racing film Talladega Nights. It remains one of the most spectacular and unpredictable venues in stock car racing.

Operated by: NASCAR (International Speedway Corporation)