Bringing balance to a track that's always been semi-off

It does not take a race on Halloween weekend for the ghosts of Talladega Superspeedway to rise. Whether it's karma or juju or the product of some supernatural power, there's always been something a little different about that 2.66-mile race track dug out of the north Alabama hills. NASCAR's very own twilight zone has been a place where strange, sometimes unexplainable things have happened, cast against a thousand campfires that give it an almost otherworldly glow.

Robert Thrower didn't perform an exorcism -- but he did bless the track, trying to give it balance.

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There is no other venue like it, from the size to the spectacle to its turbulent and sometimes tragic history. It was at Talladega where Bobby Isaac abruptly parked his car and got out, claiming voices had told him to do so. It was at Talladega where the garage was once vandalized, where the pace car was once stolen, where parts of the infield still have a reputation for being as lawless as the tribal areas of Pakistan. Then there are the other events, these much more mortal, the water-tank explosions and helicopter crashes and racing accidents that have left sadness and devastation in their wake.

Why all this, in one place? The search for explanation began to take on a life of its own. People said the track was built on the site of an American Indian burial ground, and the spirits were exacting their revenge. People said the name of a nearby town was really a Native American word for "bad water." People said the place was cursed because the indigenous peoples had been forced to leave their homes and move west as part of the Trail of Tears. None of it was ever verified, of course. But it didn't matter. It persisted anyway.

Rick Humphrey, the track's president, has heard it all. He's heard every shred of rumor and myth and superstition about why his track, which hosts the Cup Series on Sunday, has such a checkered and tumultuous history. So through an acquaintance, he got in contact with a Creek Indian community based in a small town in far south Alabama, near the Florida line. And last Thursday, a man in a ponytail and wearing a rainbow-colored sash arrived to try and restore some balance to a facility that's been plagued by instability since its first race, which was boycotted by a number of top drivers due to safety concerns. (Continued)