NASCAR NATION-Where NASCAR Fans UNITE!
A BRIEF HISTORY OF NASCAR
History of
NASCAR
Published by NASCAR Media
In the years immediately
following World War II, stock car racing experienced the greatest
popularity it had ever seen.
Tracks throughout the country
were drawing more drivers – and bigger
crowds.
Nonetheless, there was a
serious lack of organization. From track to track, rules varied
different. Some tracks were makeshift facilities, built to produce
one big show at a county fair or something similar to capitalize on
the crowds flocking to the events.
Other tracks were suited to
handle the cars, but not the crowds. Some could manage both, but
did little to adhere to rules set by other
tracks.
Hotel across the street from the Atlantic Ocean to discuss the problems facing stock car racing.
France had come to Florida
from Washington, D.C., years earlier. He operated a local service
station and also promoted races on the city’s famed beach-road
courses, often racing himself. He was a man of strong will – and
ambition. Thus, by the time that meeting at the Streamline Hotel
was completed, the
National Association for
Stock Car Auto Racing was born. Few knew when the meeting adjourned
if the organization would be successful. In fact, there were
skeptics who believed it never would
work.
Not even France, who
believed a sanctioning body was exactly what the sport of stock car
racing needed, could have envisioned what NASCAR has
become.
Things came together quickly.
The first NASCAR-sanctioned race was held on Daytona’s
beach
course Feb. 15, 1948, just two months after the organizational meeting. Red Byron, a stock car legend from Atlanta, won the event in his Ford Modified. Six days later on Feb. 21, NASCAR was incorporated.
course Feb. 15, 1948, just two months after the organizational meeting. Red Byron, a stock car legend from Atlanta, won the event in his Ford Modified. Six days later on Feb. 21, NASCAR was incorporated.
It was 1949, however, that
what is now the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the premier racing series
in America, was born.
Jim Roper of Great Bend,
Kan., was the winner of the first “Strictly Stock” (the precursor
to NASCAR Sprint Cup) event, held at the Charlotte Fairgrounds on
June 19, 1949. A tremendous crowd attended the event to see
automobiles with the appearance of a street-car race door-to-door.
The new racing series was an immediate
success.
Plans immediately were
made for ways to bring bigger, faster races to bigger, hungrier
crowds and less than a year later (1950), the country’s first
asphalt superspeedway, Darlington Raceway in
South Carolina, opened its doors for the new division.
South Carolina, opened its doors for the new division.
The first decade for the
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was one of tremendous growth. Characters
became heroes and fans hung on every turn of the wheel, watching
drivers manhandle cars at speeds fans wished they could legally run
themselves.
Names like Lee Petty, Fireball
Roberts, Buck Baker, Herb Thomas, the Flock brothers, Bill Rexford,
Paul Goldsmith and others became as well-known to race fans as
Willie, Mickey and the Duke were to baseball
fans.
Looking to the future, as
well as the past with the success of Darlington, Bill France Sr.,
began construction of a 2.5-mile, high-banked superspeedway four
miles off the beach in Daytona Beach.
France had helped lead the
fight to keep racing affiliated with the city. When those looking
to set land speed records began opting for the Bonneville Salt
Flats in Utah so the incoming and outgoing tides at Daytona Beach
would not be a factor, the city wanted to maintain one of its main
attractions – fast cars and the beach. By the end of NASCAR’s first
decade, the city not only had held on to its racing roots, but had
outgrown the beach and, in 1959, moved events to Daytona 
International Speedway. With its
long back straightaway and sweeping high-banked turns of more than
30 degrees, the 2.5-mile tri-oval was one of the largest speedways
in the world.
In the first race, fans were
treated to something that each year still brings millions of fans
to NASCAR races – close competition.
The first Daytona 500 didn’t end for three days. It took that long for NASCAR officials to study a photograph of the finish between Petty and Johnny Beauchamp before declaring Petty the winner.
The first Daytona 500 didn’t end for three days. It took that long for NASCAR officials to study a photograph of the finish between Petty and Johnny Beauchamp before declaring Petty the winner.
The hook had been
set.
The following year (1960),
superspeedways were opened just outside Atlanta and Charlotte. ABC
televised the 1961 Firecracker 250 from Daytona Beach as part of
its "Wide World of Sports."
New heroes
emerged.
Lee Petty’s son Richard, who
soon would be referred to as "The King" of stock car racing, Buddy
Baker, Cale Yarborough, Ned Jarrett, David Pearson and Bobby
Allison led NASCAR racing through an era that featured a schedule
of more than 60 races a year on tracks from Florida to California
to Maine.
Fan interest grew and the
demand for bigger, faster tracks was heard. In 1969, France opened
the
2.66-mile Alabama
International Motor Speedway (now known as Talladega
Superspeedway), the largest and fastest motorsports oval in the
world. New tracks sprang up in Brooklyn, Mich., (70 miles southwest
of Detroit), Dover, Del., (between Philadelphia and Baltimore) and
Pocono, Pa.,
two hours from Manhattan.
two hours from Manhattan.
The decade of the 1970s
brought further change, including one at the top when Bill France
Sr., passed the torch of leadership of NASCAR to his son Bill Jr.
on Jan. 10, 1972.
Corporate sponsorship of the
series by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company through its Winston
brand began in 1971 and NASCAR’s premier division eventually became
known as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series.
In 1976, NASCAR’s premier
series took the lead in worldwide motorsports attendance for the
first time with more than 1.4 million spectators making their way
to events, according to figures from the Goodyear Tire and Rubber
Company.
That lead never has been
relinquished.
Television exposure
grew as well. The 1979 Daytona 500 became the first 500-mile race
in history to be telecast live in its entirety. In 1981, NASCAR
moved its annual awards ceremony to New 
York City from Daytona
Beach for the first time.
By the mid 1980s, Fortune 500 companies not only were involved in sponsoring NASCAR, but individual races and teams as well.
By the mid 1980s, Fortune 500 companies not only were involved in sponsoring NASCAR, but individual races and teams as well.
Drivers such as Darrell
Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott and others were rising to
challenge Petty, Allison and Yarborough, and displaying the colors
of detergents and coffees and cereals on the hoods of their cars
while doing it.
Major consumer packaging
companies like Kellogg’s, General Foods and Procter & Gamble
were realizing what Bill France saw coming in the late 1940s –
stock car racing was big.
In 1982, NASCAR consolidated
the Late Model Sportsman Division into a new series. Since rising
costs had madeweekly racing for the Late Model stock cars
difficult, the idea behind the creation of the series was to build
big races and to bring all of the regional-stars of the series
together for all
of the
races.
Anheuser-Busch, Inc. of St.
Louis, Mo., became the sponsor of the new NASCAR Budweiser Late
Model Sportsman Series. In 1984, the Busch brand took over the
sponsorship in what would become the NASCAR Busch Series – now
called the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
By 1989, just 10 years after
the first 500-mile race to be broadcast live flag-to-flag, every
race on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule was televised, nearly all of
them live.
Close competition and high
speeds in cars that have a "stock" appearance have been the
hallmark of the NASCAR’s top division through the
years.
As the decade of the 1990s
began, perhaps no one but the sports visionaries could have
imagined the growth NASCAR would undertake. Without question it was
an exciting time. NASCAR began its meteoric rise by expansion in
1993 to New Hampshire Motor Speedway – 70 miles north of Boston –
and in 1994, to the capital of open-wheel racing,
Indianapolis.
In May 1994, NASCAR
introduced a new series, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series,
involving full-bodied pickup trucks. After several exhibition
events, the first points event in the new series was held in
February 1995. The intensely competitive series has grown in
popularity and in 2009 welcomed a new sponsor and name: the NASCAR
Camping World Truck Series.
At the same time, NASCAR’s
at-track attendance grew monumentally.
The NASCAR “lifestyle” was
becoming a national phenomenon with cover stories in Forbes and
Sports Illustrated. To help feed the tremendous growth, NASCAR
launched its official Web site in 1995 (www.NASCAR.com) and in 1997, NASCAR
branched out again, adding races in top 10 markets like Los
Angeles, Dallas/Ft. Worth and added a second date in New
Hampshire.
The 1998 season marked the
celebration of NASCAR’s 50th Anniversary with an
unprecedented integrated marketing campaign to celebrate NASCAR’s
past, present and future. NASCAR’s top division expanded once again
to Las Vegas while the NASCAR Nationwide Series expanded to Pikes
Peak International Raceway in Colorado, and the NASCAR Camping
World Truck Series included new races at St. Louis, Memphis and
Pikes Peak.
From 1993 to 1998, NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series at-track attendance alone grew 57% (by 2.2
million) to over 6.3 million and its top three divisions combined
grew a staggering 80% (by 4.1 million), to over 9.3 million.
Topping off NASCAR’s explosion in the ’90s was the announcement in November 1999 of a consolidated television package with Fox Sports/FX and NBC Sports/TNT for NASCAR’s premier division and NASCAR Nationwide Series beginning in 2001. At the same time, DaimlerChrysler announced intentions to return its Dodge nameplate to NASCAR’s top division for 2001, after a 15-year hiatus.
Topping off NASCAR’s explosion in the ’90s was the announcement in November 1999 of a consolidated television package with Fox Sports/FX and NBC Sports/TNT for NASCAR’s premier division and NASCAR Nationwide Series beginning in 2001. At the same time, DaimlerChrysler announced intentions to return its Dodge nameplate to NASCAR’s top division for 2001, after a 15-year hiatus.
As the sport’s fan base grew,
NASCAR grew internally as well. In November 2000, Mike Helton
became the third president in NASCAR history as the torch of
leadership passed to a non-France
family member for the first
time.
By the turn of the century,
nothing could stand in the way of NASCAR’s raging success. New
stars emerged such as Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte and
second-generation driver Dale Jarrett. NASCAR’s drivers, teams and
tracks once again saw unprecedented exposure, this time with the
aid of an expanded 36-race schedule and its new television package
in 2001.
The TV story was proving a
remarkable success as viewership for the Daytona 500 grew 48% (over
6 million) to 18.7 million viewers between 1993 and 2002. When FOX
Sports aired its first Daytona 500 in 2001, viewership increased
32% (4.1 million) to over 17 million from the 2000
broadcast.
As Tony Stewart was crowned
NASCAR’s 2002 champion, close observers of the sport saw a youth
movement swelling, personified by drivers such as Jimmie Johnson,
Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth and Dale
Earnhardt Jr..
In 2003, NASCAR made two
major announcements to help the dawn of the new era become even
clearer. NASCAR announced in June that Nextel would become the new
series sponsor in 2004, replacing R.J. Reynolds’ Winston brand
after 33 years. Three months later in September, Brian Z. France
was named as NASCAR’s CEO and Chairman of the Board replacing his
father, Bill France Jr.
A number of developments have
followed. The Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup was announced at the
start of 2004, ushering in a new format by which to determine the
champion of NASCAR’s premier series. In 2006, Toyota announced a
move into all three of NASCAR’s national series. In 2007, it was
announced that the premier series’ name would be changed to the
NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series. NASCAR’s “playoffs”
would also have a new name: The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. In
addition, 2007 also saw the announcement that Nationwide Insurance
was replacing Anheuser Busch as main sponsor of NASCAR’s No. 2
series. And there was the phasing-in of NASCAR’s safetyoriented new
car.
In 2008, history was made as
Jimmie Johnson won a third consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup
championship, tying Cale Yarborough’s record set from 1976-78. In
2009, more history – Johnson won an unprecedented fourth
consecutive crown and the sporting world took notice, as he was
named Male Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press. Johnson
went on to extend the unprecedented streak of consecutive NASCAR
Sprint Cup titles by winning his fifth straight in 2010, and is
currently the reigning champion. In 2011 NASCAR implemented points
changes to simplify the understanding of how points are earned, and
changed the 11th and 12th spots in the Chase For The Sprint Cup to
be earned by either having the most points between places 11-20, or
the most races won between places in the standings 11-20 after the
first 26 races. This is allowing for the potential for wins to be
fought harder for to earn a spot in the
Chase.
In May of 2010, NASCAR
opened their long awaited Hall Of Fame in Charlotte,
North Carolina. In it's inaugural class of inductees are the
biggest names in the birth and growth of NASCAR. The 
sports organization's creator,
"Big" Bill France, Sr. was inducted along with his son, Bill
France, Jr, who was very instrumental in the sport becoming the
enormous success it is today. Also inducted were Junior Johnson,
who drove in the early days of the sport, and was owner of a
six-time championship team, "The King" Richard Petty, who holds the
record for most career wins (200) and is tied with the fifth
inductee, "The Intimidator" Dale Earnhardt, Sr., with 7 career
Sprint cup titles.
The second class of
inductees are no less important to the history of the sport, as the
leader of the famed "Alabama Gang" Bobby Allison, former champion
and award winning broadcaster Ned Jarrett, team owner, genius
mechanic and world War II hero Walter M. "Bud" Moore, 3 time
champion and second all-time in wins (105) David "The Silver Fox"
Pearson, and driver, owner 3 time champion and winner of the
inaugural Daytona 500 Lee Petty were all inducted in 2011. On June
14, 2011, the third class of inductees were announced. This class
consists of nine time Whelen modified
champion Richie Evans, who won eight of those titles
consecutively, and whose number (61) was the first in the history
of NASCAR to be retired. Eight time championship winning crew chief
Dale Inman, who won 7 of those titles as crew chief with Richard
Petty, and one as crew chief for Terry Labonte. Darrell waltrip,
winner of 84 career races and 3 championships, and is currently the
face of the sport as award winning broadcaster for NASCAR on Fox
and SPEED, Cale Yarborough, 83 time race winner and three time
champion, and Glen Wood, team owner who has 98 career wins and
founder of the legendary Wood Brothers Racing team that
revolutionized the method in which pit stops are done to
date.
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