“Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” an irreverent
comedy based in the outlandish (fictionalized) world of
American stock car racing, premiered in movie theaters
around the United States on August 4, 2006.
American Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) stands up to his Gallic
rival Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen).
The 1911 international 500-Mile Sweepstakes Race took place at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday, May 30, 1911. This event
marked the first running of the Indianapolis 500, one of the most
prestigious automobile races in the world.
Ray Harroun, an engineer with the Marmon Motor Car Company,
came out of retirement to drive, and won the inaugural event
before re-retiring for good in the winner’s circle.
Ray Wade Harroun (1879 – 1968)
A Pacific Northwest sports legend, Baseball Hall of Famer and
former Seattle Mariner, Ken Griffey Jr., will drive the 2024
Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray pace car the 108th running of the
Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 26.
On February 21, 1948, the National Association for Stock Car
Racing—or NASCAR, as it came to be widely known—was
officially incorporated. NASCAR racing went on to become
one of America’s most popular spectator sports, as well as
a multi-billion-dollar industry.
The driving force behind the establishment of NASCAR was
William “Bill” France Sr. (1909-1992), a mechanic and auto-
repair shop owner from Washington, D.C., who in the mid-
1930s moved to Daytona Beach, Florida to escape the Great
Depression .
Bill France as a racer.
After a short racing career, Bill France realized that
organizing races is business for him.
Bill France on the construction site of the Daytona
International Speedway.
On February 18, 2001, Dale Earnhardt Sr., considered one of the
greatest drivers in National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) history, died at the age of 49 in a last-lap crash at the
43rd Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Earnhardt was driving his famous black No. 3 Chevrolet and vying
for third place when he collided with another car, then crashed into
a wall. After being cut from his car, Earnhardt, whose tough,
aggressive driving style earned him the nickname “The Intimidator,”
was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Earnhardt died of a basilar skull ring fracture, the most serious
type of skull fracture.
Ralph Dale Earnhardt
(April 29, 1951 – February 18, 2001)
