Track Profile: Talladega Superspeedway

Talladega Superspeedway is among the most popular venues in stock car racing with good reason. The massive, 2.66-mile tri-oval is known to produce unforgettable racing at record speeds.

And it’s a staple on the ARCA Menards Series schedule.

PHOTOS: ARCA Menards Racing at Talladega

The 2023 running of the General Tire 200 marks the ARCA Menards Series’ 61st race at Talladega, located 40 miles east of Birmingham, Alabama, and 95 miles west of Atlanta, Georgia. The trends associated with ARCA Menards racing at the track tell one all he or she needs to know about the difficulty for drivers.

No ARCA Menards Series driver has won back-to-back races at Talladega since Tim Steele won in 1997 and 1998. Since then, only one driver (Frank Kimmel, 2006 and 2013) has won more than one race at the superspeedway.

That’s a formula for yet another exciting, unpredictable ARCA Menards Series race at Talladega. Below is everything to know about the famed track.

Track Profile: Talladega Superspeedway

Then called Alabama International Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway opened in September of 1969 on soybean farming land. The track was the product of a casual conversation a few years prior between race car driver/insurance salesman Bill Ward and International Speedway Corporation/NASCAR founder Bill France.

Ward found what he thought was the perfect site in north Talladega County near an airport 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, Alabama, 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 at Daytona International Speedway to observe first-hand the potential economic impact, the group was sold.

Construction began on the 2,000-acre site on May 23, 1968, with the first race being the ‘Bama 400 Grand Touring race on Saturday, Sept. 13, 1969. Ken Rush drove a Camaro to Victory Lane in that event. The next day, Richard Brickhouse won the first Grand National (now the NASCAR Cup Series) race, the Talladega 500 (now the traditional Fall race), edging Jim Vandiver and Ramo Stott.

Today, Talladega Superspeedway’s massive property covers roughly 3,000 acres, including the track site and parking areas. The infield features four new NASCAR Cup Series Garages in the Talladega Garage Experience.

The ARCA Menards Series Paddock is an 18,000-square-foot paved lot located behind those garages.

More about Talladega Superspeedway

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ARCA Menards Series Results at Talladega Superspeedway