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Tuesday’s Hot Clicks: The Infield at Talladega Is What a NASCAR Apocalypse Would Look Like

These photos of the things left behind by NASCAR fans on the Talladega infield are worth far more than 1,000 words. 

Dan Gartland

Talladega Superspeedway

These photos are worth far more than 1,000 words

Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama is the party capital of NASCAR. Fans show up on Wednesday to start camping on the track’s infield before the race on Sunday and spend all weekend doing depraved things like wrestling in barbecue sauce.

When it’s all done, though, somebody has to clean up the mess left by tens of thousands of booze-soaked race fans. In the cold light of morning, the remnants of the weekend’s festivities look a lot less whimsical and much more like the aftermath of an Alabama apocolypse. 

In recent years, the track’s Twitter account has taken to documenting the consequences (see the April 2018 edition here and the October 2018 edition here) and this year may be the best yet.

The track posted 24 tweets with photos of knee braces, stripper poles and many other things that had been set on fire. I’m going to embed them all here because it would be a crime to leave any of them out. 

I think the massive amounts of empty Busch Light cans do a good job of explaining what happened here. 

TMI, Joel

The Sixers weren’t sure if they’d have All-Star Joel Embiid in the lineup for Game 2 against the Raptors—not because his knee injury had flared up again but because he had a stomach bug.

How bad was it? “If you’ve had the shits before, you’d know how it feels,” Embiid said. 

Embiid had an off shooting night (if you can blame him) but the Sixers gutted out a tough win behind a 30-point, 11-rebound performance from Jimmy Butler. Butler provided this intriguing biographical detail after the game. 

Flopping isn’t just in the NBA playoffs

Get a load of Stars defenseman Esa Lindell flopping all over the place as he attempts to draw a penalty against Robert Bortuzzo. It worked, but Lindell got two minutes himself for embellishment. 

This angle is by far the most damning, and it’s utterly hilarious. 

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Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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