Talladega Days

Driving goes more slowly in the forested hills of a two-lane blacktop than on the Interstate, and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame at the Talladega Superspeedway was just shy of closing when I finally got there. I begged my way in.

I’m no fan of auto racing; I just don’t get what so fascinates my husband and his ilk about cars running around in circles. But the cars themselves I can appreciate, and I especially love the bodacious curves of older models. The Hall of Fame has something for every car aficionado: historic photos, memorabilia, trophies, autos from early ones raced on the beach at Daytona to the carcass of Mike Harmon’s Monte Carlo wrecked at Bristol in 2002. The museum includes special tributes to Davey Allison, an Alabama son and frequent winner at Talladega who died at the speedway in a helicopter crash in 1993.

Since the Hall of Fame first inducted honorees in 1990, drivers in all genres have been heralded, among them Enzo Ferrari, Ettore Bugatti, Richard Petty, Niki Lauda, Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser Jr.

Behind the Hall of Fame sits the massive, 140,000-seat Talladega Superspeedway. I missed the last tour of the day, so I did the fitting thing: I went tonight to see the movie, Talladega Nights, right here in Talladega. The Old South town of Talladega 10 miles south of the speedway doesn’t get much play in the movie (which might just has easily have been called Lowe’s Motor Speedway Battle, except it doesn’t have much of a ring to it.) But you get chance enough to see the racetrack, alleviating the guilt I was feeling at missing the tour. It wouldn’t be my top pick of summer movies, but I did find myself laughing a lot.