Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Aaron's 499 at Talladega Odds & Ends

compiled by Mike Forde
NASCAR Media Services

At Talladega Superspeedway:


History
· Construction began on what was then known as the Alabama International Motor Speedway on May 23, 1968.
· The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was held on Sept. 14, 1969.
· The name changed to Talladega Superspeedway in 1989.
· Fourth repaving completed on Sept. 19, 2006.

Notebook
· There have been 81 NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Talladega Superspeedway since the track opened in 1969; two a year every year except the inaugural season, which had just one.
· Richard Brickhouse won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
· Bobby Isaac won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup pole in September 1969. Isaac won the first three poles there.
· 35 different drivers have won poles. Juan Pablo Montoya won the pole for last season’s spring race, his first career pole.
· Bill Elliott leads all drivers with eight poles.
· 39 different drivers have posted victories, led by Dale Earnhardt Sr. (10). Eighteen drivers have won more than once. Brad Keselowski became a first-time NASCAR Sprint Cup winner last season.
· Jeff Gordon leads all other active drivers in victories, with six.
· Hendrick Motorsports has won 10 races, more than any other organization. Richard Childress Racing, with nine wins, can match that mark this weekend.
· 31 of 81 races have been won from a top-two starting position, including 13 from the pole; 23 have been won from a starting position outside the top 10. The most recent driver to win from the pole was Jeff Gordon in 2007 (spring).
· The furthest back in the field a race winner started was 36th, by Jeff Gordon in 2000.
· Mark Martin’s pace in the 1997 spring race set an all-time NASCAR Sprint Cup record for the fastest race ever. He won the caution-free race with an average speed of 188.354 mph and covered the 500-mile distance in two hours, 39 minutes and 18 seconds.
· Dale Earnhardt Jr. had four consecutive victories (October 2001 through April 2003), the most ever by a driver there. Buddy Baker (three – May 1975 through May 1976) is the only other driver to win more than two consecutive races there.
· Since the inception of electronic scoring in 1993, every race that has ended under green has had a margin of victory under half a second.

NASCAR in Alabama
•There have been 100 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Alabama.
•65 drivers in NASCAR’s three national series (all-time) have their home state recorded as Alabama.
•There have been seven race winners from Alabama in NASCAR’s three national series.

Talladega Superspeedway Data
Race #: 9 of 36 (4-25-10)
Track Size: 2.66 miles
· Banking/Corners: 33 degrees
· Banking/Frontstretch: 16.5 degrees
· Banking/Backstretch: 2 degrees
· Frontstretch: 4,300 feet
· Backstretch: 4,000 feet

Driver Rating at Talladega
Brad Keselowski* 94.2
Denny Hamlin 93.4
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 92.2
David Ragan 91.8
Joey Logano* 90.0
Tony Stewart 89.9
Brian Vickers 89.3
Jeff Gordon 87.1
Jeff Burton 85.8
Matt Kenseth 85.7
Note: Driver Rating compiled from 2005-2009 races (10 total) at Talladega.
* - Keselowski and Logano have each run two Talladega races.

Qualifying/Race Data
* 2009 pole winner: Juan Pablo Montoya (188.171 mph, 50.890 seconds)
* 2009 race winner: Brad Keselowski, 147.565 mph, 4-26-09)
* Track qualifying record: Bill Elliott (212.809 mph, 44.998 seconds, 4-30-87)
* Track race record: Mark Martin (188.354 mph, 5-10-97)

Estimated Pit Window: Every 34-36 laps, based on fuel mileage

No comments: