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Nascar History
Nascar History - Nascar Betting Tips - Nascar Glossary
Early NASCAR History
NASCAR was co-founded by William France Sr. and Ed Otto on February 21, 1948. William France, Sr. had the notion that people would enjoy watching unmodified, "stock" cars racing and promoted a few races before World War II. In 1947, he decided that this racing would not grow without a formal sanctioning organization, standardized rules, a regular schedule, and an organized championship. This led to the formation of NASCAR in 1948. The first NASCAR "Strictly Stock" race ever was held at the old Charlotte Speedway in North Carolina on June 19, 1949.
Most NASCAR 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 1.38 miles, was wider, faster, and higher-banked than the NASCAR racers had seen. The famous Daytona, Florida race used a two mile stretch of the beach as one straightaway and the beachfront highway as the other, prior to the construction in 1959 of the Daytona International Speedway, a 2.5 mile high-banked track that became the icon of the sport.
Growth of the sport
NASCAR began to attract more attention through the 1950s as manufacturers realized the opportunity to promote sales through NASCAR racing. At various times Ford Motor Company (Ford and Mercury), General Motors (Chevrolet and Pontiac), and Chrysler (Dodge, Chrysler, and Plymouth), all supported factory NASCAR teams, openly and sometimes covertly when they pretended "not to be involved in racing." The NASCAR teams became full-time jobs for the top drivers and owners. Although stock racing did not have much following outside the Southeast, people like Lee Petty, Curtis Turner, Fireball Roberts, Smokey Yunick, and Junior Johnson became well known within the racing world.
Almost all the NASCAR races were held in the southeastern U.S., because the economics of traveling with racecars, parts and mechanics demanded it. Many of the venues were county fairgrounds or local tracks that hosted local racing on Saturday night when the touring stars were not in town. An exception was Riverside Raceway, in Riverside, California; because of the travel distances involved, it traditionally either started the Grand National season or ended it. This was the only time NASCAR came out west, until the opening of Ontario Motor Speedway in 1970, and the only road course NASCAR ran on until the track closed in 1988.
Beginning of the modern era
NASCAR made major changes in its structure in the early 1970s. The NASCAR top series found sponsorship from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR). The "Winston Cup" became the NASCAR top competitive series, with a new points system and some significant cash benefits to competing for NASCAR championship points. The next division down, 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 NASCAR races began to get partial television coverage.
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, and Richard Petty passed to win. Immediately, Yarborough, Allison, and Allison's brother Bobby were engaged in a fistfight on national television. This underlined the drama and emotion of NASCAR 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 NASCAR.
The beginning of the modern era, which NASCAR defines as 1972, also brought a change in the competitive structure. The purse awarded for NASCAR championship points accumulated over the course of the NASCAR season began to be significant. Previously, drivers were mostly concerned about winning individual races. Now, their standing in NASCAR championship points became an important factor.
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 dirt track in Stamford Park, Ontario.
A NASCAR exhbition race was held in 1988 in Australia, with Neil Bonnett winning. In 1996, NASCAR went to Japan for Suzuka NASCAR Thunder 100 at Suzuka Circuitland in Suzuka City on November 24, 1996. This exhibition (non-points) NASCAR race was won by Rusty Wallace. Two more NASCAR exhibition races were held in Japan in 1997 and 1998. On March 6, 2005 the first NASCAR points-paying race outside of the United States since 1958 was held for the NASCAR Busch Series at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez racetrack in Mexico City. The winner of this twisty road course event was defending series champion Martin Truex, Jr.
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