TALLADEGA, Ala. — It’s only fitting that NASCAR races this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, witnessing one of the first major disputes between drivers and the top stock car series in the United States.

That came during the debut race at the Alabama track in 1969, when the NASCAR-despised Professional Drivers Association, led by Richard Petty, deemed the track too dangerous and unprepared for competition.

PDA wanted to postpone the race, NASCAR founder Bill France refused and the situation quickly became controversial. So 36 NASCAR regulars boycotted the event, but France saw to it that the event went on without them.

And now, 55 years later, we return to Talladega and the French family finds themselves facing a challenge once again. This time, only two teams – Michael Jordan-owned 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports – filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR this week over its charter system.

The two organizations are the only ones of 15 that have refused to sign the take-it-or-leave-it deal that NASCAR dumped on the owners 48 hours before the playoffs started last month. They filed a lawsuit Wednesday against NASCAR, which is in the middle of the playoffs with six races remaining, starting Sunday at Talladega Speedway.

“This is obviously the biggest story in the sport and probably one of the biggest stories in a long time,” said Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson.

So instead of focusing on Sunday’s mid-12 race, where drivers must secure their spot in the standings ahead of next week’s qualifying race in Charlotte, the conversation turns to the upcoming legal battle.

Denny Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner who co-owns 23XI Racing with Jordan, said the lawsuit won’t distract him from trying to win his first Cup Series championship. In fact, he’s more motivated than ever. Hamlin is fifth in the standings and is a two-time Talladega winner.

“Don’t be fooled, the competitor in me, don’t you think I don’t want to come here and win this weekend more than any other?” Hamlin was furious Saturday: “That’s what I’m driving at, hitting an 18-footer on the 18th hole to win the match. Yes, I live for these moments.

“Anyone who knows me personally will tell you that you can usually get more out of Denny in times like these because I hate losing and I certainly won’t make any excuses for losing.”

Hall of Fame team owner Richard Childress confirmed to Fox Sports that NASCAR has withdrawn from the more than 100-page charter agreement – which is essentially a revenue-sharing model – regarding Richard Childress Racing at 6:37 p.m. Friday night, September 6, midnight deadline to sign it “otherwise we would lose our statutes.

“I had no choice because we had to sign the contract,” Childress told Fox Sports. “We have over 400 employees, contracts and I have to take care of my team.”

McDowell takes his fifth super speedway pole position

Michael McDowell captured his fifth pole of the season at the superspeedway on Saturday, giving Front Row Motorsports – the second team in an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR – the top starting spot at Talladega.

McDowell is out of the playoffs.

He won six poles this year, starting at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the second event of the season. McDowell also was the fastest qualifier in NASCAR’s return to Atlanta, as well as in both races at Talladega and August’s race at Daytona. He won his sixth pole position at Gateway near St. Louis, and this is not a superspeedway.

The record for most consecutive superspeedway pole positions is held by Bill Elliott, who won six straight at Talladega from 1985-1987. Elliott won two of those six races.

McDowell completed a lap at 300.00 km/h and took the lead in qualifying among the Ford drivers. Austin Cindric qualified second for Team Penske, and McDowell’s teammate Todd Gilliland qualified third.

Kyle Busch, who is desperately trying to maintain his streak of winning at least one race a year for the 20th consecutive season, qualified fourth in a Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing.

Ryan Blaney, the reigning Cup Series champion and Penske’s teammate with Cindric, was fifth, followed by teammate Joey Logano and RCR driver Austin Dillon.

Hamlin was the highest qualified Toyota driver and finished eighth.

Reddick fights back

Tyler Reddick won Talladega in the spring as part of his march to the regular season championship. However, before Sunday’s race, he is below the qualifying limit and is trying to understand what happened to his Toyota 23XI race car.

Reddick is averaging 19th place in the first four races, with one top-10 finish and 21 stage points. He was 25th last week at Kansas Speedway, where he won last year.

“Yeah, it’s definitely food for thought at this point,” Reddick continued. “I feel like we all finished the regular season, I didn’t feel like there was any change in what I was doing. I don’t think anyone on this team has it either. We just didn’t run good races. We had no speed; We didn’t manage to get stage points. It was hard.”

Reddick vowed to race at Talladega on Sunday as usual, and he isn’t concerned about NASCAR keeping a close eye on him as his race team sues the sanctioning body.

“I’m not worried at all,” Reddick said.

Aero change

NASCAR delivered the new part to teams ahead of Sunday’s race as part of an aerodynamic change intended to prevent cars from floating in the air.

The change is intended to increase the speed required for cars to climb. Josh Berry crashed at Daytona International Speedway in August, the same race in which Michael McDowell went airborne but didn’t crash.

A week earlier, Corey LaJoie crashed at Michigan International Speedway.

New parts add rocker to the sides of the cars, and fabric has been added to the inside of the right roof hatch. The right side roof rails were extended two inches with polycarbonate.

Talladega is a 4.6 km long oval with a 33 degree slope.