Day Trip to Talladega

Talladega. It is the biggest track on the NASCAR circuit. It is the most dangerous track on the NASCAR circuit. And since it is the venue of Sunday's Sprint Cup race, I thought it would be a good time to share some pictures from my day trip there a few weeks back.

The drive from Fayetteville, GA to Talladega, AL is just under three hours. My parents decided it would be a nice place to take a little family day trip since I happened to be out of school that Friday and had a Cross Country race the next day. We traveled there along interstate I-20 and came home through the backwoods of Alabama.

When we arrived at the track, we went in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame which is kind of like the visitor's center. It was late in the afternoon, but the tour guide was nice enough to take us and another group on a tour even though the last one of the day had already left... especially when he heard that all of us came from out of state.

Here are a few snapshots and captions from all we saw. The guide was an eighty-year old man who knew everything there was to know about Talladega and plate racing. South Carolina happened to be playing Alabama in Tuscaloosa that weekend, so he mentioned several times how they all were planning to have "Gamecock stew" for dinner.

In all of these pictures, you'll notice how dark the sky looks. That's because we hit the track just before the afternoon rain storm...

Those tire marks are remnants from Carl Edwards' airborne car back in April. I think it is kind of cool that they still left them there. Of course, we'll see a lot more of those by the time the checkered flag waves after 500 miles...

Here I am standing in victory lane. It looks so much smaller in person than when it is shown on the tube. I don't see how there's room for the winning team in addition to all of the media...

This is about the most picturesque scene I have for you at Talladega. There are even the Turn Four grandstands in the background...

Our 'Bama tour guide described this building as the place where the track owners discuss how to pocket our money on race weekend. All the dough that's spent on six dollar bottles of Coke goes toward that funky-looking space ship entrance...

That wraps up the picture show from my trip to Talladega. I'll try to write an edition of The Speeding Bullets for Sunday's race. Hope the racing will be better than it has been the last couple of weeks...

The Speeding Bullets: Pepsi 500

• Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson on winning two of the first four races of this year's Chase. Once he took the lead not long after the drop of the green flag, there was no looking back. The final restart showed just how much better he was than the rest of the field. Can you believe he has won three consecutive fall races at this track??? Jimmie is unbeatable, and unless something seriously goes wrong I don't see how he can not win a fourth straight championship...

• At this point in the 2009 postseason, it doesn't matter how consistent all of the other Chasers are if they cannot win races. Juan Pablo Montoya may be running the best he ever has in the Cup series, but top fives every single week still aren't enough to run down a guy who is capable of winning all of the races remaining in this season's Chase. Mark Martin and Tony Stewart are the only drivers I believe have any shot at catching Johnson, and with them, it's only a matter of how long they can keep up...

• Kasey Kahne really gave NASCAR a strike at the heart with what he said after his crash on Sunday. He blamed them for causing the big wreck in the closing laps of the race by throwing one of their bogus debris cautions. This was exactly what Tony Stewart did a couple of years back, but you know what NASCAR does when unwanted truths are uncovered. The funniest part of the whole incident was how the ESPN announcers were defending NASCAR for their actions by saying there were a couple of water bottles thrown on the track. Water bottles??? Those were probably from some hard-core fans who didn't want to have to watch Jimmie win another race...

• Overall, I must say this was one of the better Fontana races I have seen. I think that moving the race from night to day really improved the racing on the track. The only problem with this race being late in the season is that it favors JJ even more. It is a step in the wrong direction if NASCAR wants to "Johnson proof" the Chase...

That's all I have for this week. Saturday night is the last time we truly go under the lights in 2009, unless you count Texas and Homestead. I remember from last year that Charlotte was one of the most exciting Chase races...