(Photo by Tanner Latham)
Kyle Busch burned up the track at the Aaron's 499 on Sunday, but that wasn't the only thing on fire around there this weekend.
A hazy smoke hung over the air at Talladega Superspeedway when I drove past it Friday afternoon. My first and ignorant thought was that there might be a forest fire.
Things are pretty quiet around Talladega, AL, 50 weekends out of the year. But anyone who lives within 100 miles of the town, about half an hour east of Birmingham, knows to avoid I-20 at all costs. (ALL COSTS!) 150,000+ people make pilgrimages to the Sprint Cup races there in April and October.
If the interstate is absolutely inevitable, we locals become master tacticians, sometimes looking to the stars for guidance. While driving home from a trip via I-20, I debated exiting far east of 'dega and taking backroads to Birmingham, but I felt lucky and took my chances.
There was hardly any traffic, so I sailed right by the Speedway with my windows down. What I thought was a fire was actually the thousands of smoldering grills and camp fires in the rolling fields around the track.
I'm a moron.
