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This Week, It's the Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 at Talladega!
 Click for Nascar race & news threads at FR Race Menu for the weekend series  Talladega Superspeedway Track History On an unassuming stretch of land suited for soybean farming located next to a couple of abandoned airport runways, crews constructed the biggest superspeedway in NASCAR, Talladega Superspeedway. Since Alabama International Motor Speedway (as it was called until 1989) opened its gates in September 1969, the track has surpassed every initial expectation. Talladega, Ala., emerged as the top choice among several possible sites in the Southeast, with the main criteria for selection being availability of land, access to the interstate system and a population base of at least 20 million people within 300 miles. Anniston insurance executive Bill Ward, a race driver and fan himself, helped NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation founder William H.G. (Bill) France find the land in Alabama, following a casual conversation with France in Daytona in the mid-1960s. Ward found what he thought was the perfect site in north Talladega County near an airport that the U.S. Government had sold to the City of Talladega after World War II. He set up a meeting with then-Talladega mayor James Hardwick and other city officials, and in a restaurant in Anniston in 1966, France got the group to consider the idea of putting a major track on the site. After a trip to the Firecracker 400 in Daytona to observe first-hand the potential economic impact, the group was sold.  FRFL'ers - Deadline to select your drivers is Oct 6 2:00am PDT |