The Talladega Conspiracy: Curse Of The 2.6-mile Oval

Would you believe it if someone told you the Talladega Superspeedway was haunted? Well, that’s what the buzz is! With several inexplicable incidents around the iconic racetrack, some fans believe that the 2.66-mile oval is cursed. Throughout its existence, the venue has been witness to some classic NASCAR races. However, it has also seen some untimely deaths. The circuit is said to have a dark past that many racing fans might not know about.

The Talladega Superspeedway was opened 54 years ago on September 13, 1969. That date itself is not very auspicious if you’re one to believe in superstitions. But it’s safe to say that it has been a successful venue. Today, two races in the NASCAR Cup Series are held at the track each season. The paranormal activities may have stopped, but the stories do not fail to send a chill down one’s spine.

Talladega has been a theatre for the inexplicable

There are several reasons why fans consider Talladega to be a cursed venue. For starters, it is said to be built over a native burial ground. The track is reportedly located in a valley that used to serve as a horse racing venue for the native Americans. Legend suggests that a chief fell off his horse and passed away, and ever since, their spirit has haunted the area. While these claims seem wild, the track has also been witness to other inauspicious occurrences.

The 1973 Talladega 500 race was one such instance. At the time, the track was a lot more dangerous than it is today, given how fast the cars used to go. After 13 laps of the 1973 race, rookie driver Larry Smith crashed into the wall and lost his life even though his car received only minor damages. An autopsy report two years later would state that Smith had died of multiple skull fractures. It was the 9th ever race at the venue.

Later in the race, Bobby Isaac impulsively asked his team owner Bud Moore for a relief driver. The NASCAR Hall of Famer drove into the pits, left the car, and went straight home. He didn’t take part in a single race in the remainder of the 1973 season. According to reports, Isaac had heard a voice that asked him to get out of the car. Some fans have suggested that the voice was that of Larry Smith, the driver who had lost his life in the same race.

Just a year later, another strange incident took place at the venue. Several drivers scheduled to participate in the event found something wrong with their cars. The brake and oil lines were cut, tires were damaged and there was sand and soda in the fuel tanks. It would have been a mighty feat for someone to have broken into the venue and committed the crime. The mystery remains unsolved to his day, and some have pointed toward the paranormal.

The Talladega curse seems to have remained dormant for a while, as nothing highly unusual has happened at the track of late. Perhaps that has something to do with a certain ritual that took place at the track over 10 years. It was organised by the then-Talladega Superspeedway president.

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Iconic NASCAR track had a ritual performed to keep curse at bay

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By the time the 2000s arrived, the Talladega Superspeedway was already considered to be a cursed track. The fact that it was built over an ancient native burial ground terrified a lot of people, including then-track president Rick Humphrey. He decided to take matters into his own hands as he called Robert Thrower, a medicine man from the Poarch Creek in Atmore, to perform a traditional Native American balancing ceremony ahead of a race weekend in 2009.

While Thrower, who was also a Southern Baptist minister, didn’t exclusively say that the land was jinxed, folklore has suggested that a curse was placed on the land originally inhabited by Creek Indians when they were forced to give it up.

“This thing about a curse. “A lot of times that’s people’s perceptions,” the minister had said at the time.

Talking about the balancing ritual, Thrower mentioned,“Most everything in Native American belief is about keeping balance. Sometimes people and places can get out of balance, and that unbalance may be perceived as something bad. What we did was to bless the track and ask for reconciliation so that balance can be restored.”

The Talladega management also seemed content Mr. Thrower’s presence. “It was a very moving ceremony. It’s like Mr. Thrower said, sometimes things just need to be brought back into balance. With the controversy that surrounded Talladega when we first opened, it’s a possibility that there has always been some unbalance here. I’m confident in saying that after this ceremony, however, we don’t have to worry about that anymore and we are looking forward to a great AMP Energy 500 race weekend,” Rick Humphrey said. 

Whether that ceremony worked or not is unclear but paranormal activities at Talladega have not been recorded in the recent past. Do you believe that the Talladega Superspeedway is haunted? Let us know your thoughts.

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