January 29, 2010

Its been another big week for us at Talladega Superspeedway.

The seats for our grandstand project have arrived and installation started Monday. We began talking about this project several years ago and to see it starting to really take shape is exciting.

Just to give you an idea of how big of job this is, the communications team came up with some interesting facts.

For instance, 4.5 miles of caulk will be used on the job. That's enough to create a 1/2-inch strip around the track 1.5 times. When the job is complete, the concrete used will equal enough to pour the foundations for 300 single family homes and 45 miles of reinforcement steel will used in the concrete once completed.

But the fact I'm most proud of is this $13 million job has put 100 local people to work in our area and will put approximately $3.5 million directly into our community.

I hope you will follow our progress on our website, but more importantly I hope you join us in April to see it for yourself.

January 22, 2010

By now you’ve probably heard, but if you haven’t, let me tell you again . . . Bumpdrafting is back! That’s right, NASCAR made the announcement Thursday at its annual pre-season press conference to relax its restrictions on bumpdrafting in the turns at Daytona and Talladega. Many folks, including myself, believe this will make for even more exciting racing at Talladega, if that’s possible.

I’ve been asked how does NASCAR decide to change its rule and regulations? In this case it was pretty simple, they listened to the fans. Following the AMP Energy 500 last fall, many fans voiced their opinions that the on-track activity was less than what they had come to expect. They shared those opinions with us and with NASCAR. So while in Las Vegas in December, NASCAR met with all the promoters and informed us they would have meetings with the drivers and teams to address the fans’ concerns. Thursday’s announcement, that also included a larger restrictor plate as well as replacing the wing with a spoiler, was the result of those meetings.

As one veteran said Thursday, I’m as excited as I’ve ever been about getting a season started.

So keep up the good work race fans and let us know what you’re thinking. Because as you can tell, we’re all listening.

January 8, 2010

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and your New Year has started as great as mine.

The talk around Alabama today is the University of Alabama’s big victory over the University of Texas for the college football National Championship. My wife is an Alabama alum so our house pulls for the Crimson Tide every Saturday in the fall. However, last night’s victory was especially rewarding for me and the staff here at Talladega Superspeedway.

Earlier in the week we reached out to our friends at Texas Motor Speedway and placed a little wager on the game. Today, the Talladega Superspeedway flag flies high above the offices at Texas Motor Speedway and was raised there this morning by my counterpart Eddie Gossage.

Eddie is also sending us some brisket to enjoy next week.

More than 20 years ago I interned under Eddie at Charlotte Motor Speedway and over the years he’s fed me and others a lot of “bull.” This time, however, it’s some bull I can actually eat.

Roll Tide!!