Talladega Superspeedway - Records

Records

• March 24, 1970: Buddy Baker, driving the Chrysler Engineering #88 Dodge Charger Daytona, officially becomes the first driver in NASCAR history to break the 200 mph barrier by turning a lap of 200.447 mph (322.588 km/h). This was also a World Record at the time for any vehicle on a closed course. It was achieved using official NASCAR Scoring and Timing equipment.
• August 20, 1971: Paula Murphy, "Miss STP" made a record closed course run for a female at 171.499 mph (276.001 km/h).
• August, 1974: A.J. Foyt tests an Indy car at a speed of 217.854 mph (350.602 km/h).
• August 9, 1975: Mark Donohue sets a closed-course world record in a Porsche 917-30 at 221.160 mph. It would stand as a world record for four years, and as a United States record until 1986.
• May 6, 1984: The Winston 500 set a motorsports record with 75 lead changes in a single race.
• May 5, 1985: Bill Elliott sets a 500-mile race record, winning the Winston 500 at an average speed of 186.288 mph. Elliott won the race despite losing nearly two laps during a lengthy early pit stop to fix a broken oil line, and despite the race only having two caution flags. Elliott made up the entire distance he lost under one lengthy, green-flag period. The record stood as the fastest 500-mile race of any kind until 1990, when Al Unser, Jr. broke it by winning the CART Michigan 500 at Michigan International Speedway at an average speed of 189.727 mph (305.336 km/h). Mark Martin later broke the record for fastest 500-mile NASCAR race (see below).
• November 26, 1985: Lyn St. James sets a record closed course run for a female, at over 200 mph (320 km/h).
• March 24, 1986: Bobby Unser sets a closed-course speed record for four-wheel drive vehicles with an Audi 5000CS Turbo Quattro at 206.825 mph (332.853 km/h) with a top speed over 350 km/h (over 219 mph) the car was complying with NASCAR rules.
• 1986: The Saab Long Run – set of 2 world and 21 international records with three series SAAB 9000 Turbo – 100,000 km with an average speed of 213.299 km/h and 50,000 miles with an average speed of 213.686 km/h.

• April 30, 1987: Bill Elliott sets the all-time NASCAR qualifying record, winning the pole for the Winston 500 at a speed of 212.809 mph (342.483 km/h) (44.998 seconds). The record still stands due strictly to the use of the carburetor restrictor plate, mandated after the 1987 season.
• October 11, 1988: Lyn St. James sets a record closed course run for a female at 212.577 mph (342.110 km/h), driving a Ford Thunderbird.
• December 14, 1989: Patty Moise sets a record closed course run for a female at 216.607 mph (348.595 km/h), driving a Buick.
• January 23, 1990: Patty Moise sets a record closed course run for a female at 217.498 mph (350.029 km/h), driving a Buick.
• 1996: Saab set endurance and speed record-breaking runs in their 900 Talladega.
• May 10, 1997: Mark Martin wins the Winston Select 500, a race which had no caution flags, at a NASCAR 500-mile record speed of 188.354 mph (303.126 km/h), nearly ten years after the introduction of restrictor plates.
• October 15, 2000: Dale Earnhardt sets a record for the most wins at the track, 10. This was also his last win before his death at the 2001 Daytona 500.
• June 10, 2004: Rusty Wallace tests a stock car without a restrictor plate for series sponsor Nextel to test communication capabilities, gets an overall lap time of 44.27 seconds (216.309 mph), beating Elliott's old record by more than seven-tenths of a second.
• April 25, 2010: The Aaron's 499 broke the 1984 mark of 75 lead changes with 88; it also set a new motorsports record with 29 different leaders.
• October 7, 2012: A melee involving 25 cars erupted on the final lap when Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth were battling for the win; Stewart chopped into Michael Waltrip and shot up the track in Turn Four; he flipped over as the field plowed into a suddenly-blocked track. Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch escaped the crash as Kenseth took the win. The race lead changed a season-high 54 times.