Talladega

Talladega is a city in Alabama with a famous race track that hosts two annual NASCAR races. This nostalgic track is about a road trip the narrator takes with some pals driving his father's old Winnebago to the Talladega Superspeedway. "I didn't want to write just another song. I didn't want it to be about racing," Church told ESPN. "I wanted it to be about the emotional attachment that people have to a memory that involved going to a race. It wasn't about the race. It was about being with the people there and having that escapism."

Church wrote this song with one of his longtime songwriting partners, Luke Laird. They penned it on a bus in Albany whilst the Sprint Cup race at Daytona was being shown on a TV in the background. "We were sitting there," Church recalled to ESPN, "and the race was on, and they were showing people in the infield and they were showing fans, and we started talking about how, in iconic places like Daytona and Talladega and Bristol - and maybe even Martinsville, because I went there with a couple of my buddies one time -- that that is the identity of the city."

Church and Laird were initially unsure which iconic race track the song should be titled after, but they eventually plumped for "Talladega." "It fit in there like it was supposed to be there," said Church. "And for me, some of my favorite moments from racing have revolved around the Talladega race. Still, Earnhardt coming from 9,000th to win it, that still to me is it -- that's the one." "So if you talk about the heart of NASCAR, for me, there's two: Bristol and Talladega," he continued. "And I'm from North Carolina. That's the two I think of when I think about the true heartbeat of NASCAR."