Talladega Superspeedway Facts

At Talladega Superspeedway:
• 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 track changed to Talladega Superspeedway in 1989.

• Track’s fourth repaving completed on Sept. 19, 2006.

• There have been 80 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 in this season’s spring race, his first career pole.

• Bill Elliott leads all drivers with eight poles.

• 38 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 with his win earlier this season.

• Jeff Gordon leads all other active drivers in victories, with six.

• Hendrick Motorsports has won 10 races, more than any other organization.

• 31 of 80 races have been won from a top-two starting position, including 13 from the pole; 22 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. Two of the last four races have been won from the 34th starting position (Jeff Gordon in 2007 and Tony Stewart in 2008).

• 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 one second.

• There have been 99 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Alabama.

• 65 drivers in NASCAR’s three national series (all-time) have their home state recorded as Alabama.