It's been eight years since "Talladega Nights" was released, and NASCAR has changed a lot since - MotorSportsTalk

The Will Ferrell goofball comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby premiered in theaters eight years ago today, and it’s been fascinating to see what’s happened to the world of NASCAR since August 4, 2006.

Here’s just a brief summation of the things and moments captured in Talladega Nights that are either still relevant today or have changed in that time frame:

NASCAR has been through two new generations of cars, as the Car of Tomorrow premiered in 2007, went through enhancements and then launched the new Generation-6 car in 2013.
NASCAR’s last season on NBC was in 2006… it will return in 2015. The booth crew changes, from Bill Weber, Wally Dallenbach Jr. and the late, great Benny Parsons to Rick Allen, Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte next year.
SPEED Channel is no more, as it chronicled Ricky Bobby’s return to the track at Rockingham (which no longer holds a Cup race) for a test after his accident at Charlotte that led to the whole “Help me Tom Cruise!” gag.
Nextel was still the series title sponsor; Cup did not become the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series until 2008.
Kurt Busch has followed a Ricky Bobby-like odyssey of his own, with a high-profile fall from grace from Team Penske at the end of 2011, to then actually driving a Ricky Bobby-inspired “ME” paint scheme with permission from all involved at Talladega the spring of 2012 with, fittingly, Phoenix Racing as the team. And that was to raise awareness for the Armed Forces Foundation. With Furniture Row Racing a year later, he drove a Wonder Bread-sponsored car. Now, Busch is back with a top team in Stewart-Haas Racing, and also been one of the stories of the 2014 racing season with his double attempt at Indianapolis and Charlotte Memorial Day weekend – the former event where he won the rookie-of-the-year honors after a sixth place finish.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in his eventual second-to-last season at Dale Earnhardt Inc. (2007) before his first at Hendrick Motorsports (2008). “Junior” switched from the 8 to 88 in ’08.
Jamie McMurray has gone from Chip Ganassi Racing to Roush Fenway Racing and then back to Ganassi.
Michael Waltrip called Talladega Nights great.
No “Jean Girard” type has entered NASCAR, but Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya entered NASCAR at the tail end of 2006 to provide the first consistent, full-time foreign driver from 2007 through 2013. JPM didn’t sip macchiatos; he did manage to hit a jet drier once, and that’s spawned an endless barrage of bad jokes since the 2012 Daytona 500. Of course now, JPM is back in IndyCar where he races against a guy who can pull off a wicked Jean Girard imitation – actual Frenchman Simon Pagenaud.
A litany of corporate sponsors – some of which were lampooned in the movie – have since left the sport.
One of the actors in the film got arrested for domestic violence… and that came only a month after he was arrested for reckless driving. Surprisingly, that actor wasn’t one of the two who played Ricky Bobby’s troublesome twosome of kids, Walker and Texas Ranger – it was the actor who played a young “RB” himself.
A Talladega Nights-inspired restaurant was sued by Sony Pictures.

There’s undoubtedly more, but for now, we’ll simply leave you with those moments to chew on.

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Vicki Golden has earned a career worthy of a thousand stories and 805 Beer tells at least one of them, as “Inverted Perspective” premiered March 30 on the company’s website and YouTube channel.

Golden did more to break the glass ceiling in SuperMotocross than she ever thought possible. She knows this because riders have never felt the need to explain any of her accomplishments with the disclaimer, “for a girl”.

At this point in Golden’s career, she’s been the first woman to finish top 10 in AMA Arenacross Lites, the first woman to qualify in the Fast 40 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the first woman to compete in freestyle Moto X competition, earning a bronze medal by doing so.

Her love for moto came from childhood while she watched her dad and brother ride. By seven she was on her bike and making waves throughout Southern California.

Golden, 30, is still madly in love with the sport and has no plans on moving away but her career is already one to talk about. 805 Beer’s film series wanted to do exactly that.

“I’m taken aback by it all,” Golden told NBC Sports about the documentary. “It’s just crazy to see your story, it’s one thing to live your life and battle everything that comes about but it’s another to just sit there and talk about it.”

805 approached Golden about the feature by asking, “Do you even realize that what you do, and your story is special?”

Golden took the question as a blank canvas to map out the highs and lows of her career and life.

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The title “Inverted Perspective” came from a brainstorming session with Dominick Russo and it highlights Golden’s outlook on the sport of SuperMotocross and her life in general.

“My whole life, my whole career was thinking differently and looking at things that shouldn’t be done and aren’t there, while being able to make a place for myself, where no one thought there should be a place,” Golden said. “It’s inspiring someone to think in different ways. It sums up my life.”

*Vicki Golden is not “fast for a girl”; she’s just fast. – 805 Beer*

While Golden is no stranger to the spotlight, this was the first time she’s been fully involved with the storytelling and creation of a feature about herself.

“It’s not like a full new experience,” Golden said. “Obviously, you get your standard questions about your upbringing and accomplishments, but I’ve never really put into perspective things that happened in my past with my dad and putting that to light. Also, certain other things that maybe got overlooked in previous interviews or films. I wanted to touch on these and Dom wanted to create a story. It’s just cool to see it come to light, it’s a nearly impossible thing to tell somebody’s life story in 40 minutes.”

Golden’s father was left paralyzed after an ATV accident, robbing him the opportunity to ride again. This happened a few months before the father-daughter duo was set to compete in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals when Vicki was 12. While she might have been unable to grasp the severity at the time, it’s something she carries with her. Golden continues to ride in his honor.

Years later, an accident in 2018 nearly sidelined the then 25-year-old Vicki when a freestyle accident almost resulted in the amputation of her lower leg.

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Golden 805 Beer — *Vicki Golden has ridden a variety of disciplines in SuperMotocross, which gives her a unique perspective. – 805 Beer*

“Inverted Perspective” highlights her father’s diligence in helping Vicki continue with her career and the kindness and strength he carried while fighting his own battle.

“My dad was the entire reason that I started riding in the first place,” Golden said. “So, to honor his memory and to honor what we went through and how hard he pushed to keep our dream alive and keep everything going – in that sense then, it was really special to be able to honor him and talk about him.”

The 40-minute feature was filmed entirely in black and white, a stark contrast from the oversaturated world of motocross where the brighter the suit the easier it is for fans to find their rider and follow him in the race. By filming in monochrome Russo and Golden had the chance to focus on the race and track from a different perspective.

“It was cool to be able to film it differently,” Golden said. “It created a challenge in the sense of what was going to be more visually impactful for the film.

“I couldn’t be here without the companies that back me but at the same time, it’s not like the logos or colors disappeared, it’s just different lights shed on different spots. It’s just a cool way to do it and to take color away and still be impactful. When you think of black and white, you think of old school, the OG way of doing things.”

It’s been eight years since “Talladega Nights” was released, and NASCAR has changed a lot since

Vicki Golden and 805 Beer tell a unique story from an Inverted Perspective

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