NASCAR a Way of Life in Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. —  Mattie Mullinax and her family were watching TV in their home 1 1/2 miles from Talladega Superspeedway when they heard the announcement. The Winston 500, postponed for a second day because of rain, was rescheduled for Saturday, May 10, 1997.

“I just went, ‘Oh my God, no, no, no,’ ” Mullinax said recently. “I stayed up and cried all night.”

May 10 was to be her daughter’s wedding day at the Dry Valley Baptist Church, a mile from the track. They had planned for two years; they had sent out 200 invitations. Now the family would have to contend with 130,000 race fans, who twice a year put this tiny town on the sporting map.

“The next morning, I don’t know why I did it, I pulled out an invitation and went to the track,” Mullinax said. “I handed it to one of the secretaries. She looked at it and said, ‘Uh, oh’.”

The secretary took the invitation upstairs to track president Grant Lynch.

“She came back down and said, ‘We can’t reschedule, but we’ll pay whatever it costs for you to reschedule,’ ” Mullinax said. “As soon as I got home, Mr. Lynch called me and said he was sorry and the track would take care of everything. He didn’t set any limits on what I could spend.”

The cost wasn’t much -- about $400 -- but the gesture was worth thousands. “They get my vote as good neighbors,” said Mattie, who moved the wedding to May 9.

Good neighbors?

Powerful neighbors. And on two three-day weekends a year, they have lots of visitors.

Talladega Superspeedway is just off Interstate 20, about 40 miles east of Birmingham and 90 miles west of Atlanta. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Talladega County had only 76,737 residents in 1996, including 18,246 in the incorporated city of Talladega. But on race day, Talladega -- the track -- becomes one of the largest cities in Alabama.

“The overall impact on the area is tremendous and it might be worth $50 million,” said James Hilber, a Talladega County tax commission administrator. He estimated the county gets about $600,000 annually just from the 2 percent sales tax on purchases made in rural sections of the county, including the track, during the two race weekends.

The first such weekend is April 24-26.

By Wednesday of that week, residents in the vicinity of the track will have stocked up on food before the throng of fans descends and “hunker down” for a siege. The roads are so heavy with traffic, said Frank Feild, the executive director of the Greater Talladega Area Chamber of Commerce, “I think they sink two inches.”

The noise is thunderous. Fans camp in fields for three days. Strangers are everywhere. What kind of neighbor would bring this kind of disruption to town?

“They’re great neighbors,” said Frank Hopper, who lives across Speedway Boulevard from the track’s front gate. “It’s hell around here when it’s a race weekend. But the good far outweighs the bad. That track means a lot of money to this community and the businesses.”

Most of the fans attending the Talladega races are not from Alabama, which helps explain why so much money flows into the area. Talladega Superspeedway says only 25,000 of the approximately 130,000 fans who attend the race are from the state.

There are just five hotels in Talladega County, so rooms fill up in Birmingham and nearby Anniston-Oxford. The Hampton Inn in Oxford, approximately 15 miles from the track, charges $64 a Saturday night stay most of the year. A Saturday night stay on race weekend is $140.

Traffic increases visibility, which can increase business.

Lew Watson, the mayor of Lincoln, four miles northwest of the track, says mobile-home builder Redman Homes specifically picked an address on Speedway Boulevard, a half-mile from the front gate of the speedway, for a new plant in 1995. Watson said the company wanted the exposure and liked the idea of a location a mile off I-20. He said it created 120 new jobs for the community.

The speedway not only brings in money, it spends it, too. The Talladega County Economic Development Authority receives $30,000 a year from the speedway. One year the speedway purchased new cars for the sheriff’s department.

Local civic groups raise money for special events by operating concession stands at the track. Talladega Superspeedway makes the bulk of the profit from each stand, but the groups can still earn $400 to $1,000 in the three days of racing.

But not everyone is a winner when the race comes to town. The city of Talladega is 11 miles south of the track and I-20, and there are pockets that don’t benefit.

“The race is up by the interstate and we’re 11 miles away, so we don’t get all that many fans down here, they all stay up there and spend money,” said Joe Holmes, who works in Cowboy Hubbard’s Trading Post on the square in downtown Talladega.

Jim Montgomery, a local attorney, says he and others doubt some of the hype about economic benefit.

“They have very few employees year-round (42) and unless fans pass directly through downtown, the economic benefit is somewhat limited,” Montgomery said.

Although African-Americans in Talladega make up about 35 percent of the population, they generally do not go to the races. There are some job opportunities, but those are mostly on race weekends.

“The opportunities at the track are limited” for blacks, said Kojo Quartey, professor of business and economics at Talladega College, the oldest black college in the state. “We can clean up and sweep up and we can serve the food. Other than that there is no other opportunity there.”

Quartey, the first black to be president of the Talladega Kiwanis, says his church subleases a food booth inside the grounds. It receives 10 percent of the money it generates as a fee for working the booth in the three days of racing (Friday to Sunday).

“Some of the folks who work in our booth at the race track are offended by all the rebel flags they see waving,” Quartey said. “I see it as the Ole Miss flag, nothing more.”

In all, Quartey says the superspeedway is a tremendous asset to the region -- for both blacks and whites. The city may not get as much business as Lincoln or the businesses closer to the track, but it does gain name recognition. After all, Talladega Superspeedway is the fastest speedway for stock cars in the world.