TALLADEGA: Nascar's Most Feared Track 

The Miccosukee car was being chased by the Army and National Guard tandem and was forced to stand its ground against the leading car to ultimately win the race, absolutely surreal

“I don’t know about the whole Seminole analogy, it feels a bit out of the blue.” Last few minutes of the video happen: “Holy fucking shit.”

Man, I know Emp was punching the air after writing that last line, “The funny thing about NASCAR is that if you watch long enough, everything comes full circle.” Masterpiece of a video as a whole.

30:00 "the number 38 M&M's Ford must have covered the length of a football field without touching the ground" oh. my. god.

I still can’t get over that emplemon, the guy that did an incredible YTP has now done three nascar videos. what a ride

"The Micosukke car is being pursued by the Army and National Guard cars" "You know its like poetry, it rhymes" -George Lucas

The absolute pure poetic justice of the Miccouskee car in it’s first ever cup race standing his ground against all odds and beating the Army and National Guard in the final lap left me in complete awe. It’s stuff like this that makes it so much harder to believe in just coincidences, it sounds straight out of an over-the-top Hollywood blockbuster. The entire situation almost makes you see the souls of the Seminole warriors themselves riding alongside Keselowski, pushing him on to symbolically relive their legacy and to forever cement their immortal, unconquered legacies

It’s actually really crazy to see representation of the tribe in such a weird context I’m from a Seminole rez in the Everglades and never even knew about the involvement in nascar what a great video :)

“While unpopular in its time, many fans today look back on the era fondly” If that ain’t sum up NASCAR fans I don’t know what does

"To this day, Tiny Lund remains the last driver to lose his life at a NASCAR race at Talladega" Me: "Oh well that's good at least, glad we're through the worst tragedies now." *20 seconds later* "The nearby pressurized water tank exploded, launching Owens 15 feet in the air and killing him instantly"

I watched a video about Nascar and learned that the Seminole tribe was formed out of runaways, rebels, and rogues. That's pretty badass.

The story telling here was impeccable. Maintaining two parallel story lines that are almost always somehow related when you switch, only for the two to converge suddenly at the last moment. Well done sir.

How the hell have you gotten me to watch three Nascar videos to completion despite me not caring about nascar, and yet I enjoy each one more than the last. I might be a Nascar fan now. What the fuck

This is easily the best thing about NASCAR to come out. EmpLemon did what NASCAR couldn't. Made the awesome auto sport actually interesting to new folks.

23:40 "The track would produce an incident so ominous, that it would fundamentally alter the future of stock car racing" That sent chills down my spine

The thing I recently found out (and now love it to bits) is that in the end, every feature Emp ever told about the track (the favorable rookie instance, the fence crash, the double yellow line and the natives' NASCAR team) all came together in that race's finish.

"The funny thing about NASCAR is that if you watch long enough, everything always comes full circle." What a damn quote to end this video on. Great job as always EmpLemon! You always make NASCAR sound cool to outsiders in ways the sanctioning body never has.

"The Miccosukee car has only one driver in its way to glory. The tandem is pursued by the Army and the National Guard cars, but they are not gonna catch'em." Holy shit man, what a great line. I am glad to see Jon Bois school of story-telling flourish.

"it's amazing what can happen if you leave someone just a little more room to run..." that line is so beautiful, you have a way with words and visuals. This has got to be one of the best pieces of documentary on the site for real.

I now have a morbid curiosity to try to become a Nascar driver and race on Talladega.

Thanks for having me onboard for this, and holy shit that final bit about the Miccosukee car being pursued by the Army and National Guard until it can go no further was just ridiculously poetic.

NASCAR's been trying to do historic content to get new fans in tune with the history of the sport, but they're not nearly as effective as NASCAR RU-vidrs have been. Keep it up Emp, both you and Slapshoes are doing great work to gather interest in NASCAR even when NASCAR itself struggles to figure this out itself.

17:28 this was a legendary transition 💀

"Produces no winners only survivors." Fucking great line

a man representing a people who stood their ground and fought, standing his ground and pushing through to win. the only driver seemingly unaffected by the curse as he drives for the native people. a fitting conclusion to a tumultuous story

Although I never raced there, I participated in the ARCA test at Talladega in 2014. I don’t believe in ghosts, nor am I superstitious, but I definitely heard a similar message to the one Bobby heard at 11:31 when I was going down the backstretch on a single car run. Spooky place. Great video man.

I just gotta say, using the natives' history as a framing device to tell Talladega's history was brilliant. And seeing it come full circle at the end was unbelievably satisfying.

"It takes all of us to avoid destruction. It only takes one to create it." Well done.

I'm not from the US and have never watched a single Nascar race, but I absolutely love hearing Emp telling these stories, damn

oh my god the way he ties in the native american tribe story to nascar was amazing truly the greatest storyteller on youtube

I remember last year when the fall Talladega race was moved to Monday. Earlier in the day I struck a deal with my professor and he said he'd let me put the race on the TV in the shop during our afternoon class. So I stuck around after my morning class and put this documentary up on the TV during our break. Everyone started coming in about 15 minutes prior so they got to catch the final few chapters. Everyone loved it. We got to watch a good bit of the race before we had to evacuate the campus due to a gas leak. Good times man!

The ending to this video is the definition of poetic. It’s incredible to think this actually happened. If this was fiction, it would come across as an extremely heavy handed metaphor. You can’t make this shit up.

As a historian who worked with someone who does Native studies, I was nodding my head just listening to the Native American bits like ‘yep, not sure what this is for beyond context, maybe he’s going to make some weird political vier.’ And that one moment with Bubba had me worried, but then you brought up the 09 Car’s win with Junior sliding in second that year Carl Edwards fuckin flew. The Army and National guard chasing down the Seminole Casino with the Seminole throwing caution to the wind is oddly poetic. Not gonna lie, it was one of the most bizarre long con storytelling tie ins that I could imagine. I just thought you were callin the place cursed, but the analogy was astounding. Genuinely pleased by the sheer work you put in for that full circle deal. Also you reminded me Junior coulda won the 2004 season when I was a kid, and I remember being mega disappointed when they announced he got penalized for saying a bad word. I loved this, great work!

This shaman was very powerful. I believe lots of us didn't thought of it until we saw the rivers drying up, the forest ablaze and 3 hurricanes a month.

59:09 when that music kicks in, you know something gooder than good is gonna happen

The final 2-3 minutes was one of the best payoffs I've seen in any RU-vid video ever. What a journey. Loving the NASCAR content!

I hate how my biggest takeaway from this video is that the “Shake n’ Bake” technique from Talladega Nights was a real strategy that NASCAR drivers used at one point.

The day of ARCA president Bob Loga's accident will haunt me a bit for the rest of my life. I was working as an inspector for ARCA then. I was riding with two from the media department. One was the founder's grandson. Bob, his brother, and another ARCA official were in a car ahead of us in line to get out of the tunnel. Bob turned a round and motioned us to follow. We went through the garage area, onto pit road, then to turn 4 to go out the crossover gate at turn 3. Bob got a bit ahead of us. The last time we saw his car was going out of the gate. We get out of the track, turn left and then the driver stopped right where you see the first drive that you would have to make a very hard right turn to go toward the airport. It was so sharp of a turn, you really didn't see down it unless you REALLY cranked your head around. The other passenger told the driver, "Bob, went that way.", pointing over his right shoulder. Driver sits there for a moment deciding which direction to go. He chose to go out the normal way to the highway, turns right, past the airport, turns right again heading to town the " back way." As were driving along an ambulance passed us like it was going back to the track. You can pretty much guess the rest. If we had followed Bob, who knows, we could have been the ones in that intersection when the guy went speeding through the parking lot. Yep, weird things happen at Talladega . . . RIP Bob.

i wanna remark how you told the story about indigenous people in a way far more sympathetic than any of my history teachers. not the first time I've felt genuine ache about being on and thriving off of stolen land but its the first time I've felt that about NASCAR so thanks for the whiplash, the education, and the effort you put into this.

"god help all of them cause there's no place to go" gave me chills, truly one of the best works of storytelling ive ever seen

It's a testament to your storytelling skills how you can make me feel so much from a racetrack and a bunch of cars going around for hours.

Holy. Shit. I was kinda baffled during the entire video on why you kept hammering the story of the displaced First Nations from the Talladega Valley. The that final shot of the video fucking made that shit fit like fucking Tetris. Genius, sir, bravo.

11:07 The less deadly the crash looks the more deadly it actually is from what I've learned.

Emplemon's floridaness has been showing a lot recently

Tandem drafting has got to be the most hilarious thing I have ever seen. It's like watching a speedrunner do a glitch but in real life. Thanks for the free useless internet points!

I hope Emp makes another NASCAR video. The 3 NASCAR videos he has made I have been obsessed with. Probably watched each of them a dozen times now. I never cared about NASCAR before first watching his videos. Now I have been watching NASCAR every week for the past few months and I credit it completely to EmpLemon.

That ending gave me chills. "Trailed by the army and national guard cars." Glorious

The whole time I was like," where is he going with all this Indian allegory stuff?" In the end you really brought it all together. Fantastic video.

59:35 one thing to note: Edward almost went into the crowd just as Allison had done in 1987, just barely clipping the wall with his car at the last second. It really does always comes full circle

truly one of the best works of storytelling ive ever seen, the spine chils and laughs it delivers are especial.

I grew up in a nascar family and i love these vids. Dale Sr made me shed a tear. Thank you for makin these bro. Also, thanks for standing with sam. Saw you on brandon buckinghams lil thing and i didnt realize you were down to clown! Love ya bud thanks for the content

This channel was created with all of the other content on it just so Emp could just talk nascar and be taken seriously. I love it.

Genuinely impressed goodyear managed to shit out a tire that survived fresh Talladega.

What an incredible series. Never watched a single Nascar race in my life but loved this to death.

"god help all of them cause theres no place to go..." what a fucking fascinating story, incredible work stitching all of this together

"Do you think if they listened hard enough, they would here the thumping of horse galloping on the Alabama clay?" One of the best lines of this whole documentary, good stuff! 👏🏼

never watched a nascar race in my life, prolly never will, yet this, the art of revenge, and the never ever about dale earnhardt are some of the best videos i've watched

This is so well made. The ending with the hooves on clay was amazing. Great video man!

it always gets me how the end brings EVERYTHING mentioned in this 1 HOUR video full circle its genius

To see that Miccosukee car pass for the win while virtually throwing another car at the National Guard and the Army car was fucking amazing. The sheer irony of the situation was beautiful to see. I was wondering where the Seminole lesson was going to, and damn was it good. The more Nascar videos you make, the more I appriciate the sport. Keep 'em coming brother.

Lemon’s NASCAR videos are why NASCAR is having an upward growth in popularity for the first time in decades. Change my mind.

To EmpLemon, I don't know what to say, but your production skills are undescribable. You need to be a producer or something. This video is like an official documentary and is well done from start to end. You relate the track to history of the native tribes which matches the storyline and is flat out great. You also include a little bit of a cross over with a fellow youtuber (I watched S1apSh0es "NASCAR's worst inaugural race" video as well). I also watched your other video "NASCAR and the Art of Revenge" which is just as great of a production. Everything blends together (my favorite moment was the last segment where Kenseth gets his revenge on Logano. The music with it really sealed it, it's in my playlist now). Overall, I don't know what else to say, I can go all day on how well thought out and how well put together your videos are. Thanks for you time and content! P.S. where did you get the "Sweet Home Alabama" redo with the harmonica? I would like to know (you always use catchy beats)!

Imagine being so good at storytelling that you can convince over a million people to become interested in a brand new sport or save the careers of certain people. That is the talent that EmpLemon has

Ah, time to clear my schedule for another masterpiece

Holy crap, I have never realized and put into perspective about the sponsors of that '09 race, I've seen that race a bunch of times. I didn't think that it would be possible for a nascar race to be so symbolic and truly go full circle

Nascar is so intertwined with our culture in Alabama that it boggles the mind, even for some of us who grew up here. I personally never got the appeal but all my male family members watched every race that was televised and drove the couple hours to Talladega when they could to watch in person. It struck me as schadenfreude when I was a rebellious teenager but, as an adult looking back on our state's abhorrent history and the poverty, tragedy and guilt that accompanied it and still lingers, I realize that Nascar (and similar southern-revered sports like college football) may be a type of cathartic release for a lot of dark, nebulous emotions a lot of us here in the southeast develop and have to navigate. Well done, Sir.

17:23 - "Growing up, we're all told to respect the laws of the land but sometimes you just have to root for the rebel." Considering the roots of NASCAR, it's a little more than sometimes.

It would be mildly amusing in a dark sort of way if the "Curse" isn't an ethereal string of bad luck but caused by the way the track itself is designed. Like finding out a personality quirk is actually a textbook symptom of a mental disorder.

Your NASCAR content is gold. I have fond memories watching the Winston Cup with my Dad. Dale Earnhardt 5ever

Great video. Thanks for not sensationalizing how bad wrecks were. You explained them and moved on. Documentary worthy.

Best video I’ve ever seen on this platform. The sequence you put the events in and how descriptive you were of each of them was mind-blowing as I’ve never even watched Nascar before. Last few minutes blew my mind more than any box movie ever could. Props to you.

The nascar community is so fortunate to have such a great storyteller. Great video Emp!

I'm glad we live in a time where anyone who feels like it can just pop out a BANGER documentary whenever they like for everyone else to watch online.

F****** amazing work! And the way you it came full curcle in the end with the Miccosukee car winning and being chased down by the National Guard and the army was just too damn good. Phenomenal video. This is the type of content that proves RU-vid is on far or even ahead of modern television and streaming services.. Good f****** job dude I was very entertained

I’ve never consumed a single piece of NASCAR content, but this had me hooked the entire time. Great video!

_"Everything always comes full circle"_ That was an absolutely brilliantly produced video, with a great mix of the sport's facts and history. Thank you so much for sharing. :)

Hey Emp, you might not see this, but I just wanna tell you how much I appreciate these NASCAR videos. My Grandpa was, and still is, a huge fan of NASCAR, and I never really understood the appeal to it until I discovered your content. These videos single-handedly made me appreciate the stories of NASCAR, and the people behind the drivers’ seats. Thank you so much man, I’m looking forward to seeing whatever content you create in the future.

This video is one of the very few long form videos i can watch over and over and never lose interest or click off halfway through. Your content is so engaging and the editing, music and composition is always amazing. You’re the best man!

God damn this is truly one of the best and most compelling RU-vid videos I've seen in a long time. Your presentation and storytelling is unmatched

"God, I missed this." -me, every time EmpLemon puts out a new video

Emp I've been following you since your early ytp days, I'm talking pre-incredibles, and I can't tell you how incredibly impressed you leave me with each new video. I hesitate to say I'm proud of you since we've never met, but regardless, the progress you've made over this past decade on the platform is undeniably remarkable. Thank you emp for such great work over the years

Dude dudeeeee that ending man. Emp, you are such a genius at storytelling, You are able to tell history in such a gripping way and always end the video with such a bang. No other documentarian I know is able to have such powerful climaxes in a genre of film known for being dull and boring. Great Job man. 👍

tying all together with the theme of colonization is brilliant and maybe the only reason I stuck around for the whole video. excellent job.

My God, this is a masterpiece of poetic allegory and allusion.

Emplemon has single-handedly made me a appreciator of NASCAR with these videos. Keep up the great work dude

Great video about talladega superspeedway all around. I live very very close to the track and I've grown up going to races to it as a kid. You taught me a lot about the land, track itself, the ups and downs, the "curse" and everything else. It's awesome being able to know all this. Hats off!

This video is a masterpiece. The entire video and how time comes full circle. The last part of the video is mind blowing. This was so well done. Amazing video and props to you. Unbelievable. It is a sacred place. This is Talladega. Will be there this Sunday.

The payoff of the Miccosukee car at the finale was Truly, PROFOUNDLY riveting. I genuinely lack the words to communicate the shivers, the slack-jawed expression of blistering awe that completely overtook me in those final, immaculately poetic moments, perhaps out of anything i've seen on the platform in a long while... Holy shit, man.

As a native of Talladega who attended the first race and many after, this film is pretty accurate except nobody born outside Talladega can pronounce it correctly.

Imagine having an f1 pack race here with 43 cars from 2013 💀💀💀

Wow I gotta say great video! The algorithm has gotten a kick out of feeding me nascar videos that I start but never finish, but this one had my attention from start to finish! well done!

Having 0 interest in nascar, this was an amazing video

17:28 That was the most chilling transition you've ever pulled off

This has to be one of my favorite youtube videos of all time, it's so well put together and I'm not even a big NASCAR fan, although I am getting into the sport

One of the best documentaries I have ever watched not just on RU-vid but anywhere I think I’m coming back to it for about the seventh time now because it’s just too good to miss whenever it comes up on my feed. Great job man if this is what you leave us with I will be happy. (But please make more videos)

I find the mysteries of Talladega to be far more interesting than the deaths. Like how the hell did someone like Wright fake his way into a race without anyone asking any questions and then just as mysteriously disappear? Also that full circle moment is something else. I'm sure the Seminoles are smiling down knowing that they finally took back Talladega

Holy crap that script was wonderful. The way you wove in the story of the natives from Talladega to make it come full circle with the Miccosukee at the end was nothing short of writing craftsmanship at it's finest

A well-presented and clearly well researched video!

This is an amazingly well put together video. I’m no nascar fan, but this was one hell of a captivating story. Every single detail in this video leads up to the finale, and it’s the sort of thing I would have never been even remotely aware of had you not gone through the effort of telling the whole story. A shining example of ‘truth is stranger than fiction.’ Thanks for making this and all your other content. I probably won’t be watching a nascar race any time soon, but I’ll certainly be checking out more of your videos.

I was wondering when Emp would get to the Brad Keselowski's 2009 win, because it was the first moment in my time as a NASCAR fan where I remember where I was, what I was doing, and how I reacted to the moment. I watched Brad Keselowki in the Xfinity series, and to see him, win the Cup Series in such a spectacular fashion, with his mentor, Dale Jr. coming in 2nd, was already an amazing moment for me as a fan (I was 9 then). However, Emp just gave that moment an entirely new context that only makes me love it more. It's true that things come full circle in NASCAR A LOT, especially if you watch long enough. It's also true that sometimes NASCAR can produce moments that reward longtime viewers. If you started watching NASCAR at any point in the last few years, you'd have no idea who Micheal McDowell, the winner of the 2021 Daytona 500 is. However, as someone who's been watching NASCAR since 2008, I know and I was FLIPPING out to see Micheal McDowell win that race. I really hope you keep up with the NASCAR content. You're like the Jon Bois of NASCAR, and I really think the sport deserves a person like that.