Throughout its history, Talladega Superspeedway has seen moments that have been both wild and tragic. It is not surprising for the family members and loved ones of the drivers to want the drivers to never go back to the race track. Recently, after Kevin Harvick completed his final superspeedway run at the track, his wife, DeLana, and former NASCAR driver Elliott Sadler later mentioned how they were glad to have to never race there again.
Advertisement
Explaining why this sentiment runs through several people, former NASCAR driver and NBC analyst Kyle Petty explained the fright of Talladega, especially considering all of the incidents that have taken place here in the past.
Kyle Petty explains why racing at Talladega takes a toll on driver’s families
While speaking on the Motorsports on NBC podcast, Petty mentioned, “It is kind of chilling when you think about it. But let’s go back in time. How many drivers have we seen retire and they would say after they retired, ‘I’ll come back and run some other races, but I’ve never gone back to Talladega…'”
He further explained, “I mean… That speaks volumes to me. When a driver steps away from the sport and says, ‘Okay, I’m not officially retired, I’d probably come back and run and run four or five races a year, but Talladega is not, never going to be one of them.”
“You know what I mean, and that speaks volumes to me about the dread and the stress and the emotional toll that it takes on not only the drivers but the families when they do go to Talladega. Because we’ve seen so many so many things happen there. Some tragic and some near tragic, but really bad things have happened there,” he concluded.
Talladega’s past has been quite controversial right from the start
The first race that took place at the infamous track was back in 1969. However, before the race could get underway Richard Petty and several other drivers such as Bobby Allison, Wendell Scott, and Buddy Baker banded together in what was called the Professional Drivers Association.
Most of the drivers who were scheduled to race at the event then decided to boycott the event owing to major safety concerns involving the track surface and tire degradation.
But since Bill France wanted the race to be a success and draw in the fans, he decided to allow the other drivers who were not so popular or never raced in the Cup Series to have a go. This also included drivers with much slower cars than usually raced in the Cup Series.
In the end, the race was referred to as the worst race in NASCAR history. But that would just be the beginning of many more horrific and even at times fatal wrecks that would emerge from the race track later in time.
