Talladega Superspeedway was built by Bill France Sr. beginning in 1968 on land near the former Anniston Air Force Base in Eastaboga, Alabama, at a final projected cost of $5 million, with a groundbreaking on May 23, 1968. The track formally opened as Alabama International Motor Speedway on September 9, 1969, for practice ahead of the inaugural Talladega 500. France Sr. announced the 4-mile roval road course in April 1969, before the track had even held its first race, reflecting an intent from the outset to offer multiple circuit configurations.
The superspeedway itself is 2.660 miles with 33 degrees of banking in the turns, 16.5 degrees in the tri-oval section, and 2 degrees in the straights — making it the longest oval in the NASCAR Cup Series. The road course extends the competitive surface significantly by routing cars through the infield and back onto the oval, producing the 4-mile roval layout. The track complex covers approximately 3,000 acres, the largest on the NASCAR schedule.
The road course at Talladega hosted IMSA GT Championship rounds multiple times during the 1970s. The series first raced there in 1971 and returned five more times within the decade, including a six-hour endurance event in 1978. IMSA withdrew from a planned 1979 six-hour event before it took place.
The International Race of Champions (IROC) series made periodic appearances at Talladega, primarily on the oval, but the road course remained available throughout these years as an alternative layout for non-NASCAR events.
In 2018, ISC announced a $50 million renovation of Talladega's infield, focused on overhauling the garage complex and media center and adding suites and a new infield tunnel. Work began in October 2018 and was completed in September 2019. These renovations updated the infrastructure surrounding both the oval and the road course sections.
The superspeedway is best known for its dramatic oval racing — marked by restrictor plate requirements, pack racing, and multi-car accidents known colloquially as the "Big One" — but the road course configuration represents an alternative layout that has existed since the track's founding year and continues to be listed as part of the facility's circuit options. As of the early 2020s, grandstand capacity had been reduced to 80,000, down from a peak of 143,000 in 2003.
Multiple world speed records for closed-circuit racing have been set at Talladega. In March 1970, Buddy Baker became the first person to exceed 200 mph on a closed course, recording 200.449 mph. Bobby Isaac subsequently raised the record to 201.104 mph. A. J. Foyt set an average of 217.315 mph in August 1974, which was surpassed by Mark Donohue with 221.160 mph in 1975. These records were all set on the oval, not the road course, but they illustrate the facility's historic significance as an extreme-speed venue that has also carried a long-form road layout from its earliest days.