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NASCAR roars into Talladega Superspeedway for spring race weekend

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LINCOLN, Ala. – Talladega Superspeedway is ready for the first of two NASCAR visits to the 2.66 mile tri-oval. This weekend will see three races unlike the fall race that has just two.

On Friday, the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) takes to the track for practice, qualifying and then hits the track at 5:00 p.m. for the General Tire 200. The Xfinity and Monster Energy Series will also be on track for practice. On Saturday, the Xfinity Series controls the day with qualifying set for 9:30 a.m. before heading back out to the track for the Sparks Energy 300 at noon. Immediately after the conclusion of the Xfinity Series race, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns to the track for qualifying before the track goes quiet for the day. On Sunday, it’s the final day of action as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is set for 188 laps on the biggest track in NASCAR for the GEICO 500 at 1:00 p.m.

Grant Lynch, the Chariman of Talladega Superspeedway spoke with SylacuagaNews.com about the weekend and some of the special events happening off the track.

On Friday evening, the “Big One on the Boulevard” takes place in the infield. Staff at Talladega comes up with off-the-wall events in this program. “Well, its Cinco de Mayo or what we like to call Cinco de Dega. One of the first things we’re gonna do is have people try to eat 32oz of gordo’s cheese with a mouth guard over thier upper teeth, in a speed contest to eat 32oz of cheese,” Lynch.

To top it off, the other contest involves a little bit of dress up. “The second event, you have to dress up one of your team members up as a human taco, wrapping them up in something like a taco shell and then they have to crawl through three hundred gallons of queso dip,” said Lynch.

On Saturday evening, the track has a special infield concert which they hold every race weekend. This year, The Charlie Daniels Band will perform at 7:00 p.m. Concert-goers must have a ticket to Sunday’s race to watch.

Ticket sales for the weekend races and events are on the rise. “We have seen to big jump [in ticket sales]. I think the great weather we have for Saturday and Sunday is helping that too. We blew away our numbers for last year for several days and were encouraged by that,” said Lynch.

Officials and organizers at Talladega Superspeedway ensure race weekends are a great experience and affordable for families. “Tickets are still available as well as plenty of free camping and free parking…as far as I know, we are the only track that does that. You can visit our website to find out more on rules and maps and such and about tickets or call 1-800-Go2-Dega and we hope to see everyone out here at Talladega,” said Lynch.

Dustin Harmer for SylacaugaNews.com | © 2017, SylacaugaNews.com/Marble City Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.


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