The Alabama International Motor Speedway — now known as Talladega Superspeedway — was built in the mid-to-late 1960s near Talladega, Alabama, on land adjacent to the former Anniston Air Force Base. France Sr. announced construction in May 1968 at a projected cost of $5 million, with a planned opening in September 1969. At 2.66 miles, the track was longer than France's other flagship facility at Daytona International Speedway, and the banking was steeper; anticipated race speeds were in the 195 to 200 mph range, territory no NASCAR competition had entered.
The newly formed Professional Drivers Association represented the first organized attempt by NASCAR drivers to collectively negotiate on safety and working conditions. The PDA had been established in the months before the Talladega debut.
During practice sessions for the Talladega 500, which opened to competitors on September 9, 1969, PDA members reported severe problems with the track surface. Cale Yarborough, Buddy Baker, and Charlie Glotzbach all described the surface as rough, with the roughness causing tire wear so extreme that both Goodyear and Firestone supplied tires were shredding after as few as four laps. Baker stated: "They haven't built a tire out of anything that will stand up if you hit a chuckhole at 200 miles per hour." Firestone withdrew entirely from the event.
Drivers formally requested that France Sr. postpone the race until the surface could be repaired. France refused, citing the financial cost of building the track and his fear that a postponement would bankrupt the facility. He told drivers to race at slower speeds; they refused. The confrontation reached a breaking point when Yarborough reportedly struck France Sr. after France called him too scared to race. A meeting involving 36 PDA drivers resulted in an almost unanimous agreement to withdraw from the event.
Notable exceptions among those who stayed were Tiny Lund and Bobby Isaac. The overwhelming majority of top Cup Series competitors — including nearly all recognizable names of the era — walked out.
France announced his intention to run the race regardless. He sought out non-PDA drivers, Grand American Series competitors, and drivers willing to cross the picket line, filling the field with less prominent names and allowing the smaller-displacement Grand American "pony cars" to participate. Chrysler, which had planned to debut the winged Dodge Charger Daytona at the event with Bobby Allison, replaced Allison with PDA replacement driver Richard Brickhouse.
To compensate spectators who might be disappointed by the depleted field, France offered free admission to any future Daytona or Talladega race for anyone presenting a Talladega 500 ticket stub.
The 1969 Talladega 500 ran on September 14, 1969, without significant incident on the track. Richard Brickhouse won in the Dodge Charger Daytona, in front of a crowd of approximately 64,000 — below initial projections. Second-place finisher Jim Vandiver lodged a protest alleging NASCAR had manipulated the result; the protest was unsuccessful.
The PDA won no formal concessions from France following the boycott. The organization did not survive as an effective force for long; France effectively outmaneuvered it by demonstrating that he could run races without the top stars. The episode nonetheless illustrated the danger of operating at unprecedented speeds on a surface that had not been adequately proven, and the tire failures drivers had warned about were real. Attendance and racing quality at the track declined in the immediately following seasons, and the track was repaved within a decade.
The boycott is remembered as an early example of driver collective action in NASCAR and as a demonstration of the tension between commercial pressure — France's obligation to his creditors and sponsors — and the safety concerns of the men driving the cars.