2004 Aaron's 499
The 2004 Aaron's 499 was the ninth stock car race of the 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season and the 35th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, April 25, 2004, before a crowd of 155,000 in Lincoln, Alabama at Talladega Superspeedway, a 2.66 miles (4.28 km) permanent triangle-shaped superspeedway. The race took the scheduled 188 laps to complete. In a controversial end to the race, Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports would win the race under caution over fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. of Dale Earnhardt, Inc., after Brian Vickers caused a caution with 5 to go. The win was Gordon’s 65th career NASCAR Nextel Cup Series win and his first of the season. To fill out the podium, Kevin Harvick of Richard Childress Racing would finish third, after a review of the results of the last scoring loop. The race is primarily remembered for its controversial finish. With 5 to go, Brian Vickers would spin in Turn 3, making NASCAR throw a caution. At the moment of caution ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dale Earnhardt Jr
Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr. (born October 10, 1974) is an American professional stock car racing driver, team owner, and broadcaster. A third-generation driver, he is the son of the late 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt and relative to many former and current drivers in the NASCAR ranks. Since retiring from full-time competition after the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, 2017 season, he has competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro for his team, JR Motorsports. He became a color commentator for ''NASCAR on NBC'' in 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, 2018 after retiring from driving full-time in NASCAR. After his contract with NBC expired after the 2023 season, he left for ''Amazon'' and ''NASCAR on TNT, TNTs new NASCAR coverage in NASCAR's next NASCAR on television and radio, TV contract that begins in 2025. Earnhardt Jr. drove the No. 8 Budweiser-sponsored Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. (DEI), his father's te ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brian Vickers
Brian Lee Vickers (born October 24, 1983) is an American former professional stock car and sports car racing driver. He last drove the No. 14 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing as an interim driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for the injured Tony Stewart. He won the 2003 NASCAR Busch Series championship driving for Hendrick Motorsports. Vickers was also among the first series of full-time drivers for Toyota after the manufacturer first entered the Sprint Cup Series. Vickers' career has been marred by a series of health issues since 2010 that have included blood clots and heart problems. Racing career Early years Vickers began racing go-karts in 1994. Over the next three years, he won eighty races in the World Karting Association, and won three championships, including the 1995 championship against three-time winner Mike Schwartz. In 1998, he moved to the Allison Legacy Series, and won five races during the course of the season. After competing in the NASCAR Dodge ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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NASCAR Cup Series
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, when the series began leasing its naming rights to the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, it was referred to as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series (1971–2003). A similar deal was made with Nextel Communications, Nextel in 2003, and it became the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series (2004–2007). Sprint Corporation, Sprint acquired Nextel in 2005, and in 2008 the series was renamed the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (2008–2016). In December 2016, it was announced that Monster Energy would become the new title sponsor, and the series was renamed the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (2017–2019). In 2019, NASCAR rejected Monster's offer to extend the naming rights deal beyond the end of t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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International Speedway Corporation
International Speedway Corporation (ISC) was a corporation whose primary business was the ownership and management of motorsports race tracks. ISC was founded by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. in 1953 for the construction of Daytona International Speedway and in 1999 it merged with Penske Motorsports to become one of the largest motorsports companies in North America. The company played an important, though controversial, role in the modernization of the sport. It worked with NASCAR to create new tracks and update older ones in an effort to improve the racing and the experience for spectators and has constructed popular new tracks in regions previously thought uninterested in NASCAR. Because both companies have several members of the France family in top positions, ISC's competitors have filed multiple lawsuits on antitrust grounds. On May 20, 2019, NASCAR agreed to purchase ISC for approximately US$2 billion, with it the purchase closing October 18, 2019. It has been dissolved i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tri-oval
A tri-oval is a shape which derives its name from the two other shapes it most resembles, a triangle and an Oval (geometry), oval. Rather than meeting at sharp, definable angles as the sides of a triangle do, in a tri-oval these angles are instead rounded into smooth curves. While an oval has four turns, a tri-oval has six. More formally, according to the four-vertex theorem, every smooth simple closed curve has at least four Vertex (curve), vertices, points where its curvature reaches a local minimum or maximum. In a tri-oval, there are six such points, alternating between three minima and three maxima. Use in racetracks This term is most often used to describe the shape of many automobile racetracks. The use of the tri-oval shape for automobile racing was conceived by Bill France Sr. during the planning for Daytona. The triangular layout allowed fans in the grandstands an angular perspective of the cars coming towards and moving away from their vantage point. Traditional oval ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Anniston Air Force Base
Anniston Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force airfield located approximately 10 miles north-northeast of Talladega, Alabama. It was active from 1942 to 1945 and 1949 to 1952. It is currently the site of the Talladega Superspeedway and Talladega Municipal Airport. History Anniston was opened on 19 October 1942 as a flying school as part of Army Air Forces Training Command (AAFTC). The field was built with three hard-surfaced concrete runways. The main runway was 5,300 feet long. The base also featured a parking ramp and one hangar, constructed of wood and metal. The ground station consisted of many uniform buildings constructed of wood, tar paper, and non-masonry siding. The use of concrete and steel was limited because of the critical need elsewhere. Most buildings were hot and dusty in the summer and very cold in the winter. Besides offices, barracks and training classrooms, there was a library, a social club for officers, and enlisted men, and a store to buy liv ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Talladega, Alabama
Talladega (, also ) is the county seat of Talladega County, Alabama, United States. It was incorporated in 1835. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 15,861. Talladega is approximately east of one of the state's largest cities, Birmingham, Alabama, Birmingham. The city is home to the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind and the Talladega Municipal Airport, a public general aviation airport. The Talladega Superspeedway, Talladega College and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame are located nearby. The First National Bank of Talladega (now First Bank of Alabama) is the oldest bank in the State of Alabama, being founded in 1848. Etymology The name Talladega is derived from a Muscogee language, a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native American language of the Muscogee. It comes from the word ''Tvlvtēke'', from Muscogee ''tvlwv'', meaning "town", and ''vtēke'', meaning "border", indicating its location on the border between Muscogee an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Motorsport
Motorsport or motor sport are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of Car, automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and Aircraft, powered aircraft. For each of these vehicle types, the more specific terms ''automobile sport'', ''motorcycle sport'', Motorboat#Racing, ''power boating'' and ''air sports'' may be used commonly, or officially by organisers and governing bodies. Different manifestations of motorsport with their own objectives and specific rules are called disciplines. Examples include Race track, circuit racing, rallying and Classic trial, trials. Governing bodies, also called sanctioning bodies, often have general rules for each discipline, but allow supplementary rules to define the character of a particular competition, series or championship. Groups of these are often categorised informally, such as by vehicle type, surface type or propulsion method. Examples of categories within a discipline are formula racing, stock car r ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Talladega Superspeedway
Talladega Superspeedway (Alabama International Motor Speedway from 1969 to 1989) is a tri-oval superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama. Built in 1969, the track has hosted a variety of racing events, primarily races sanctioned by NASCAR. The track is owned by NASCAR and led by track president Brian Crichton. The grandstand can seat 80,000 as of 2022. Along with the main track, the track complex also has a roval-style road course. In the early 1960s, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. built the track near Talladega, Alabama, after a failed proposal to build one in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Over its first couple decades, the track gained a reputation as fast, wild, and chaotic, with speeds of over , major accidents, and unusual occurrences. NASCAR's introduction of the restrictor plate and the appearance of pack racing in the late 1980s exacerbated its chaotic reputation, with several "The Big One (motorsport), Big One" accidents involving 10 or more cars. Description Configuration ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in the world and is one of the largest spectator sports leagues in America. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and his son, Jim France, has been the CEO since August 2018. The company is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida. Each year, NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 48 US states, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Europe. NASCAR, and stock car racing as a whole, traces its roots back to moonshine runners during Prohibition in the United States, Prohibition, who grew to compete against each other in a show of pride. This happened notably in North Carolina. In 1935, Bill France Sr. established races in Daytona Beach, with the hope that people would come to watch races and that r ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |