Recalling the legendary stock-car racers who have claimed Talladega glory in the ARCA Menards Series

Since 1969, some of the biggest names in stock-car racing have taken to the wide, fast high banks at Talladega Superspeedway with the ARCA Menards Series.

Over the 54-year history of the series racing at Talladega, 42 different drivers have won the 60 races that have been contested. For each of those 42 drivers, a win at Talladega was a win on one of the sport’s biggest stages. Superspeedway specialists and newcomers alike have made their way to Victory Lane, forever etching their names in the history books as winners at the biggest, fastest track in stock-car racing.

Nobody has had more success at Talladega in the ARCA Menards Series than Chattanooga, Tennessee’s Grant Adcox. Driving for his father Herb and sponsored by the family’s Chevrolet dealership, Adcox dominated the 2.66-mile tri-oval like no other, winning four consecutive starts in 1986 and 1987 and adding a fifth win in 1988.

The event he didn’t win during that six-race streak was a second-place finish to NASCAR Hall of Famer Red Farmer in May of 1988.

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Another NASCAR Hall of Famer made his name by winning ARCA Menards Series races at Talladega, and his success hastened his induction to the famed Alabama Gang. Davey Allison, the son of 1983 NASCAR Cup Series champion Bobby Allison, had started to venture away from the short tracks of the southeast, and his dad pinpointed ARCA as the place to get experience on the big tracks in cars that were similar to NASCAR-style race cars. Davey’s success was almost immediate.

In 1983, driving a Jesse Sims-owned Pontiac, Davey Allison led 58 of the race’s 117 laps at Talladega to earn his first series win in just his fifth start. When the series returned in July, Allison again found the path to Victory Lane, leading 42 of the race’s 76 laps.

It became a hat trick for Allison when the ARCA Menards Series returned in 1984, as he again dominated, leading 62 of 117 laps for his third straight win. Mechanical issues that July kept him from winning his fourth straight Talladega race, but he did lead 25 laps.

Allison found that fourth Talladega ARCA victory in May of 1985, leading 30 laps on his way to the win and becoming, at the time, the all-time winningest driver at the track. Allison went on to earn his first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega in May of 1987.

Three-time ARCA Menards Series champion Tim Steele earned his first series win at Talladega in 1993, a victory that helped propel him to the championship in his rookie season. Steele’s success at Talladega continued as he scored three more wins, all consecutively, from 1996-98.

Chargin’ Charlie Glotzbach made history of his own in the early 1990s, winning three of four Talladega starts driving Chevrolets prepared by Richard Childress Racing and owned by Floyd Garrett. His first win, in May of 1990, came after Glotzbach recorded a scintillating 201.456 mph lap in qualifying, the last time any ARCA Menards Series driver qualified at more than 200 mph.

Folsom, New Jersey’s Jimmy Horton won twice at Talladega, his second win in 1991 coming with a V-6 powerplant under the hood of his No. 80 Pontiac. Horton was a superspeedway specialist despite coming from the rough-and-tumble big block modified circuit in the northeast. Not only did he win twice at Talladega, but he also earned a pair of wins at Daytona International Speedway.

Allison’s success at Talladega wasn’t confined to the driver’s seat. He was the owner when fellow Alabama Gang member Red Farmer scored the second of his two Talladega victories in May of 1988. Farmer, now well into his 90s, still competes regularly across the street from Talladega Superspeedway on the dirt at the Talladega Short Track.

Journeyman racer Jim Vandiver had the biggest day of his career in October of 1969 when he won the first ARCA Menards Series race at the then-new track known as Alabama International Motor Speedway. Vandiver won again in May of 1975, the only two wins of his ARCA Menards Series career. His two wins bookended victories by two-time series champion Ramo Stott. Stott, driving the powerful Plymouth Superbird, won both races at the track in 1970.

A total of 19 drivers have earned their first career ARCA Menards Series wins at Talladega, including another NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee, Mark Martin, who scored the win in 1981. Other notable first-time winners include ARCA’s first “Two-Hundred Mile Per Hour Man” Rick Roland, Paul Menard, Kraig Kinser, Michael Annett, Brandon McReynolds and Gus Dean.

Dean is the only Talladega winner currently entered for the 2023 running of the General Tire 200, which leaves the door wide open for somebody new to add his or her name to the list of ARCA Menards Series winners at Talladega.

The General Tire 200 is set for 12:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. CT on Saturday, April 22. The race will be televised live on FS1 and broadcast on select affiliates of the MRN Radio network nationwide.