NASCAR History
Early stock
car racing
In the first few decades of the 1900s,
Daytona
Beach became known as the place to set world land
speed records. The beach became a mecca for racing
enthusiasts and fifteen records were set on this
beach between 1905 and 1935. Then, in 1936, the
Bonneville
Salt Flats became the premier place to host land speed
record attempts, so the Daytona beach course began hosting
car racing events. Drivers raced a 1.5 to 2 mile stretch of
beach as one straightaway and beachfront highway A1A
as the other.
Stock car racing had its origins in bootlegging
during
Prohibition. Bootleggers needed to distribute their illicit
products, and they typically used small, fast vehicles to
better evade the police. Many of the drivers would modify their
cars for speed and handling, as well as increased cargo
capacity, and some of them came to love the fast-paced driving
down twisty mountain roads. One of the main 'strips' in
Knoxville,
Tennessee, had its beginning as a mecca for aspiring
bootlegging drivers.
The
repeal of Prohibition in 1933 dried up some of their
business, but by then Southerners had developed a taste for
moonshine,
and a number of the drivers continued "runnin' shine," this
time evading the "revenuers" who were attempting to tax
their operations. The cars continued to improve, and by the
late 1940's, races featuring these cars were being run for
pride and profit. These races were popular entertainment
in the rural Southern United States, and they are most
closely associated with the Wilkes
County region of North
Carolina. Most races in those days were of modified
cars, street vehicles which were lightened and
reinforced.
Significant people
William France, Sr.
-
Mechanic William
France, Sr., moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, from
Washington,
DC, in 1935 to escape the Great
Depression. He was familiar with the history of the area
from the land speed record attempts. France entered the 1936
Daytona event, finishing fifth. He took over running the
course in 1938. He promoted a few races before World War
II.
France had the notion that people would enjoy watching
"stock
cars" race. Drivers were frequently victimized by
unscrupulous promoters who would leave events with all the
money before drivers were paid. In 1947, he decided this
racing would not grow without a formal sanctioning
organization, standardized rules, regular schedule, and an
organized championship. On December
14, 1947, France
began talks with other influential racers and promoters at
the Ebony Bar at the Streamline Hotel at Daytona
Beach, Florida, that ended with the formation of NASCAR
on February
21, 1948.
NASCAR was founded by William France, Sr., on February
21, 1948, with the
help of several other drivers of the time. The points system
was written on a bar room napkin. The original plans for
NASCAR included three distinct divisions: Modified,
Roadster, and Strictly Stock.[2]
The Modified and Roadster classes were seen as more
attractive to fans.[2]
It turned out that NASCAR fans wanted nothing to do with the
Roadsters, which fans perceived as a Northeast or Midwest
series.[2]
The Strictly Stock division was put on hold as American
automobile manufacturers were unable to produce family
sedans quickly enough to keep up with post-World War II
demand.[2]
The 1948 schedule featured 52 Modified dirt
track races. The sanctioning body hosted its first event
at Daytona Beach on February
15, 1948. Red Byron
beat Marshall
Teague in the Modified division race. Byron won the 1948
national championship. Things had changed dramatically by
1949, and the Strictly Stock division was able to debut with
a 20 mile exhibition in February near Miami.
Erwin "Cannonball"
Baker
-
The first Commissioner of NASCAR was Erwin "Cannonball"
Baker. A former stock car, motorcycle, and open-wheel racer who
competed in the Indianapolis 500 and set over one hundred land
speed records. Cannonball Baker earned most of his fame for his
transcontinental speed runs. Baker would prove a car's worth by
driving it from New York to Los Angeles. After his death, the
famous transcontinental race the 'Cannonball
Run' and the film that was inspired by it were both
named in his honor. Baker is enshrined in the Automotive
Hall of Fame, The Motorcycle Hall of Fame, The Indianapolis
Motor Speedway Hall of Fame, and The NASCAR Hall of Fame.
This level of honor and success in each diverse racing
association earned Baker the title "King of the Road".
Bob "Barky" Barkhimer
In the early 1950s the United
States Navy stationed Bill
France, Jr., at the Moffett
Federal Airfield in northern California. His father
asked him to look up Bob Barkhimer in San
Jose, California. Barkhimer was a star of midget
car racing from the World War
II era, and later ran about 22 different speedways as
the head of the
California Stock Car Racing Association. Young Bill
developed a relationship with Bob Barkhimer and his partner,
Margo Burke. He went to events with them, stayed weekends with
them and generally became very familiar with racing on the west
coast. "Barky," as he was called by his friends, journeyed to
Daytona Beach and met with Bill France, Sr. In the spring of
1954, NASCAR became the stock car sanctioning body on the
Pacific Coast under Barky.
Strictly Stock to Grand
National
The first NASCAR "Strictly Stock" race ever was held at
Charlotte
Speedway (not the Charlotte
Motor Speedway) on June 19,
1949 -- a race
won by Jim Roper
after Glenn
Dunnaway was disqualified after the discovery of his
altered rear springs. Initially, the cars were known as the
"Strictly Stock Division" and raced with virtually no
modifications on the factory models. This division was
renamed "Grand National" beginning in the 1950 season.
However, over a period of about a dozen years, modifications
for both safety and performance were allowed and, by the
mid-1960s, the vehicles were purpose-built race cars with a
stock-appearing body.
One of the tracks used in the inaugural season is still on
today's premier circuit: Martinsville
Speedway. Another old track which is still in use is
Darlington
Raceway, which opened in 1950. (The
oldest track on today's NEXTEL
Cup circuit is the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway which dates back to 1909; however,
the first Brickyard
400 did not take place until 1994.)
Most races were on half-mile to one-mile (800 to 1600 m)
oval tracks. However, the first
"superspeedway"
was built in Darlington,
South Carolina, in 1950. This track, at 1.366 miles
(2.22 km), was wider, faster and higher-banked than the
racers had seen. Darlington was the premiere event of the
series until 1959. Daytona
International Speedway, a 2.5-mile (4 km) high-banked
track, opened in
1959, and became the icon of the sport. The track was built
on a swamp, so France took a huge risk in building the
track.
The first NASCAR competition held outside of the U.S. was in
Canada, where on July 1,
1952, Buddy
Shuman won a 200-lap race on a half-mile (800 m) dirt
track in
Stamford Park, Ontario, near Niagara
Falls.
Beginning of the modern
era
NASCAR made major changes in its structure in the early
1970s. The top series found sponsorship from R. J.
Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR). Tobacco companies, which
had been banned from television advertising,
found a popular and demographically suitable consumer base
in NASCAR fans and engaged NASCAR as a promotional outlet.
As a result of that sponsorship, the top competitive series
became known as The "Winston Cup" starting in 1971, with a
new points system and some significant cash benefits to
compete for championship points. Also in 1971, the NASCAR
season was shortened from 48 races to 31. For these reasons,
1971 is often acknowledged as the beginning of NASCAR's
"modern era".
The next competitive level, called Late Model Sportsman,
gained the "Grand National" title passed down from the top
division and soon found a sponsor in Busch Beer. In the
mid-1970s, some races began to get partial television coverage,
frequently on the ABC
sports variety show "
Wide World of Sports."
Finally, in 1979, the Daytona
500 became the first stock car race that was nationally
televised from flag to flag on CBS. The leaders
going into the last lap, Cale
Yarborough and Donnie
Allison, wrecked on the backstretch while dicing for the
lead, allowing Richard
Petty to pass them both and win the race. Immediately,
Yarborough, Allison, and Allison's brother Bobby
were engaged in a fistfight on national television. This
underlined the drama and emotion of the sport and increased
its broadcast marketability. Luckily for NASCAR, the race
coincided with a major snowstorm along the United States'
eastern seaboard, successfully introducing much of the
captive audience to the sport.
The beginning of the modern era also brought a change in the
competitive structure. The purse awarded for championship
points accumulated over the course of the season began to be
significant. Previously, drivers were mostly concerned about
winning individual races. Now, their standing in championship
points became an important factor.
NASCAR-sanctioned
series
NEXTEL Cup
-
The 2006 NASCAR Nextel cup
The "NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series" is the sport's highest level
of professional competition. It is consequently the most
popular and most profitable NASCAR series. The 2006 NEXTEL Cup
season consisted of 36 races over 10 months, with over $4
million in total prize money at stake at each race. Writers and
fans often use "Cup" to refer to the NEXTEL Cup series and the
ambiguous use of "NASCAR" as a synonym for the NEXTEL Cup
series is common. As of 2007, the defending champion is
Jimmie
Johnson.
In 2004, NEXTEL took
over sponsorship of the premier series from R. J.
Reynolds, formally renaming it from the Winston
Cup to the NEXTEL Cup Series. A new championship points
system, "The
Chase for the NEXTEL Cup" was also developed, which
reset the point standings with ten races to go, making only
drivers in the top ten or within 400 points of the leader
eligible to win the championship. In 2007, NASCAR announced
it was expanding "The Chase" from ten to twelve drivers,
eliminating the 400-point cutoff, and giving a ten-point
bonus to the top twelve drivers for each of the races they
have won out of the first 26. Wins throughout the season
will also be worth five more points than in previous
seasons. In 2008, the premier series title name will become
the Sprint Cup Series, as part of the merger between NEXTEL
and Sprint.
Busch Series
-
The Busch Series field following the pace car
at Texas in April 2007
The "NASCAR Busch Series" is the second-highest level of
professional competition in NASCAR. The cars look very similar
to Nextel Cup cars with only a few differences, such as the
weight and length of the car, the size of the rear spoiler, and
the power output of the engine. As of 2007, the defending
champion is Kevin
Harvick.
The Busch Series is currently the only series of the top
three to race outside the United States and the only series to
have ever held points-paying international events. The season
is a few races shorter and the prize money is significantly
lower. Over the last several years, a number of NEXTEL
Cup drivers have tried to run races in both series,
using the Busch race as a warm-up to the Cup event at the
same facility. Detractors of this practice have labeled such
drivers as "Buschwhackers."
The Busch sponsorship is set to expire at the end of 2007,
and the series will now be sponsored by Nationwide
Insurance. Nationwide will also become NASCAR's offical
insurance agency replacing Allstate.
Craftsman Truck
Series
-
The '"NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series" features modified
pickup
trucks. It is one of the three national divisions of
NASCAR, together with the Busch
Series and the Nextel
Cup. As of 2007, the defending champion is Todd
Bodine.
In 1994, NASCAR announced the formation of the NASCAR
SuperTruck Series presented by Craftsman. The first series race
followed in 1995. In 1996, the series was renamed the NASCAR
Craftsman Truck Series to emphasize Craftsman's involvement.
The series was first considered something of an oddity or a
"senior tour" for NASCAR drivers, but eventually grew in
popularity and has produced Nextel Cup series drivers who had
never raced in the Busch
Series.
NASCAR Canadian Tire
Series
-
NASCAR announced the purchase of Canadian
racing series CASCAR in
September of 2006. The CASCAR Western Series will become
NASCAR's fourth-tier series starting in the Fall of
2007.
NASCAR Corona Series
-
In December of 2006, NASCAR also announced the creation of a
new series in Mexico, the NASCAR
Corona Series, replacing the existing Desafio
Corona Series, to begin in 2007.[3]
Regional racing
series
In addition to the five main series, NASCAR operates several
other racing circuits.
Many local race tracks across the United States and Canada
run under the Whelen
All-American Series banner, where local drivers are
compared against each other in a formula where the best
local track champion of the nation wins the Whelen
All-American Weekly Series National Championship. The Whelen
All-American series is split into four divisions. Each
division champion receives a point-fund money payout and
even more goes to the National champion (driver with most
points out of the four division winners). The Whelen
All-American Series is the base for stock car racing,
developing NASCAR names such as Clint
Bowyer, Jimmy
Spencer, Tony
Stewart, the Bodine brothers and many others along the
way.
NASCAR also sanctions three regional racing divisions: The
Whelen
Modified Tour, which races open-wheel "modified" cars in
Northern and Southern
divisions; the
Grand National Division, which races in the Busch
East Series (formerly Busch North); and the NASCAR
West Series. Grand National cars are similar to Busch
Series cars, although they are less powerful. The
AutoZone Elite Division, which races late-model cars which
are lighter and less powerful than NEXTEL Cup cars, was
originally split into four divisions: Northwest, Southwest,
Southeast, and Midwest. At the end of 2005, NASCAR announced
that the AutoZone Elite Division would be discontinued after
the 2006 season due to having trouble securing
NASCAR-sanctioned tracks to successfully host AutoZone Elite
Division events, plus escalating costs of competing and
downsizing of the Division in recent years.
In 2003, NASCAR standardized rules for its AutoZone Elite
and Grand National divisions regional touring series as to
permit cars in one series to race against cars in another
series in the same division. The top 15 (Grand National) or 10
(AutoZone Elite) in each series will race in a one-race
playoff, called the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown, to
determine the annual AutoZone Elite and Grand National
champions. This event has been hosted at Irwindale
Speedway in California since its inception.
Many drivers move up through the series before reaching the
NEXTEL Cup series. In 2002, over 9,000 drivers had licenses
from NASCAR to race at all levels.
The winners of the Dodge Weekly Series National
Championship, the four AutoZone Elite Divisions, the two Whelen
Modified and Grand National Divisions, and the three national
series are invited to New York City in December to participate
in Champions Week ceremonies which conclude with the annual
awards banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria
Hotel.
North Carolina race
shops
Most NASCAR teams are based in North
Carolina, especially near Charlotte.
Cities in North Carolina that are home to NASCAR teams
include: Charlotte,
Mooresville,
Concord,
Statesville,
Huntersville,
Corenelius, Welcome,
Wilkesboro,
Kernersville,
Randleman,
Greensboro,
High
Point, Harrisburg,
and Kannapolis.
[citation
needed]
NASCAR compared to other forms of
motorsport
NASCAR races take place predominantly on oval tracks of 3 or
4 turns, with all turns to the left. Oval tracks are classified
as short track (less than 1 mile), intermediate
or speedway (1 to 2 miles) or superspeedway (2.5
mile tri-oval). Road courses are any tracks having both
left and right turns. As of
2007, the NEXTEL Cup series includes 36 points races,
comprised of 34 oval-track races and 2 road course
races.
NASCAR races are different compared to the rough terrain and
sharp turns of Rally, as
well as the complicated twists and turns seen in the
Formula
One course that put up to 5 or 6 g's of
stress on the driver's body. NASCAR is not the only racing
league to run a large number of races on oval tracks; the
Indy
Racing League also runs many oval track races, although
IndyCars usually average over 30-40 miles an hour faster
than NEXTEL Cup cars due to lighter cars, high downforce
designs, and wider tires.
NEXTEL Cup races have 43 cars in competition at the start of
each race (with more being forced to go home after qualifying),
compared to 22 for Formula
One and 18-20 for IndyCar
Series and Champ
Car World Series. NASCAR teams must endure a 36-race
schedule over 41 weeks. Teams usually only have about five
days to prepare before arriving at any given track.
While many fans of other racing series are often critical of
NASCAR, fans of the sport can point to the success (or lack
thereof) of drivers who move to NASCAR from other series.
Juan
Pablo Montoya won his sole IRL race, the 2000 Indianapolis
500; 25% of his CART races; and 7.3% of his Formula 1
races; yet he has won just 3.2% of his NASCAR Nextel Cup
starts. Two-time Australian V8
Supercar Champion Marcos
Ambrose has failed to win a race in 22 Truck and 30
Busch series starts while generating a total of just 8 top
10 finishes. A.J.
Allmendinger, who won 5 of the 14 CART races in 2006,
has qualified for just 13 of the 30 NASCAR Nextel Cup races
in 2007 with no top ten finishes. Champion road racers
Ron
Fellows and Boris
Said have failed to win in 17 and 30 NASCAR Nextel Cup
Starts respectively. Sprint Car great Steve
Kinser's NASCAR career lasted just 5 races before he was
replaced after recording a best finish of just 27th. 3 Time
IRL champion and Indy 500 champion Sam Hornish Jr. has
failed to qualify for any Nascar Nextel Cup events (3
attempts) and has failed to record a top 10 finish in his 8
career Busch series starts.
There are exceptions to this, however, such as Mario
Andretti who is the only driver ever to win the
Indianapolis 500 (1969), NASCAR's Daytona 500 (1967), and
the Formula One World Championship.
Criticism
Technology far from "stock" or
production
Mark McFarland (88) spins at Bristol Motor
Speedway, while Kenny Wallace (22) and Ashton Lewis
Jr. (25) pass to the inside
The 1960s-era technologies used in the "stock
cars" bear little resemblance to modern-day street
vehicles. Modern NASCAR vehicles share very few attributes
of the commercial models with which they are associated; for
example, the production Chevrolet
Monte Carlo weighs nearly the same as the NASCAR Chevy
Monte Carlo, but the NASCAR vehicle has a cast-iron
eight-cylinder engine driving the rear wheels, whereas the
production car has an aluminum alloy front-wheel-drive
V6. Also, NASCAR
vehicles continue to use carburetors
instead of the now-common fuel
injection, and they also use a 2-valve per cylinder
configuration operated by a single cam-in-block
using push rods, instead of the double overhead
cams operating 4-valves per cylinder that are common on
production cars.
Supporters note that this is a modern condition: when NASCAR
first started 59 years ago, the race cars were production
vehicles, but the safety and performance needs of modern racing
have required custom-built race cars. Supporters also note that
the strict
equipment rules place less emphasis on getting a
technological advantage, and thus more emphasis on individual
driver skill. All of NASCAR's series also run on spec tires
made by certain tire manufacturers such as
Goodyear and American Racer. Some suggest that this
discourages tire competition and development, which they
further assert has led to the absence of rain/wet condition
tires, and to races (such as the 2005 UAW-GM
Quality 500) where tires seem to
self-destruct.[4]
Business structure and
decision-making policies
NASCAR's business structure has also been criticized. Since
its founding in 1947 by William
France Sr., the overall NASCAR organization has been
majority owned by the France family, ensuring that the
family controls a majority of the overwhelming revenue that
the sport generates (compared to other sports where the
owners and players split revenue almost evenly). NASCAR is
also criticized for its reluctance to promote some aspects
of safety that it would have to pay for (e.g.,
traveling safety crew),[5][6]
and other allegedly monopolistic aspects such as
merchandising and race-track ownership. In addition, due to
its overwhelming influence and lack of drivers' say, NASCAR
has even been compared to a dictatorship by some
motorsports, political, and economic analysts.[7][8]
Examples of such influence include the cancellation of the
SPEED
Channel television show Pit
Bull (which frequently criticized many of NASCAR's
decisions and policies and enjoyed modest ratings), frequent
use of the vague "detrimental to NASCAR" rule, and the
creation of rules on whim, especially during a race. NASCAR
has taken to penalizing drivers in recent years, with fines,
point penalties, and lap penalties in races for drivers or
mechanics who use obscene language in interviews to the
media.[9]
Driver competition in multiple
series
Milwaukee Mile race track
NASCAR has long allowed drivers to compete in as many series
and events as they like, with few restrictions. However, in
recent years, top NEXTEL Cup drivers have competed in and
dominated the lower tier Busch races on a regular basis,
earning NEXTEL drivers the nickname "Buschwhackers".
The situation is compounded by the close timing of the races
in the two series: a typical NASCAR weekend has a Busch race
on Saturday followed by a NEXTEL race on Sunday at the same
track. Some have wondered why "major league" NEXTEL drivers
are allowed to compete in the "minor league" Busch races
with such frequency, and whether Busch is an adequate
developmental series. Sportswriter Bob Margolis noted that
much of this is due to the similarities between the cars
used in the two series (they are mostly alike except for the
engines and the wheelbase), and the desire for NEXTEL
drivers to get as much practice time as possible to learn
about the track and car setup before the main race.
[10]
The extra skill and money brought in by teams and drivers
from the NEXTEL Cup Series has led to a wide gap above the
Busch Series only teams, which was most evident in 2006
when NEXTEL Cup driver Kevin Harvick clinched the Busch
Series title with four races to go.
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