[pete_b]

NASCAR History

In the days of prohibition, most of the south was in the alcohol business. Running from the law was as much of a business as making the moonshine itself. For a visual picture, just think of “Thunder Road”, “Smokey and the Bandit” and “The Dukes of Hazzard.” Outrunning the law meant having a faster car. The south became not only the home of moonshine, but the home of the stock car. NASCAR has a great history and has evolved in several different areas. The exposure of NASCAR has grown tremendously over the last five decades. The money involved in NASCAR has become so great that some drivers are the highest paid sportsmen in the world. Companies have sponsored cars and races and have invested large amounts of money to capitalize on the huge, loyal audience that is addicted to NASCAR. The next few paragraphs will show where NASCAR began in these areas and how it evolved through the years.

There wasn’t any organized racing until 1934 and even then the races were on dirt tracks. World War II put a stop to all motorsports until 1946. Organized racing at that time was everything but organized. There were dozens of local sanctioning bodies and inconsistent rules. Bill France then had the idea to form the National Championship Stock Car Circuit (NCSCC) which he ran from his house. This quickly turned into NASCAR in the Ebony Room of the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach on Dec. 14, 1947. There was a lot of competition, but Bill France’s NASCAR organization was a favorite among the racers. In 1949, NASCAR’s first Strictly Stock Car champion was Red Byron. In 1950, a popularity explosion occurred with the first paved speedway in Darlington, SC. The race at Darlington was 500 miles long which many thought to be ridiculous. Yet so many people showed up that they had to use the infield for additional seating. Johnny Mantz was the winner with an average speed of 75.250 mph. This Strictly Stock Car Circuit was renamed the Grand National Circuit in 1950 and by the end of the decade it was clear that paved tracks were on the way in and dirt tracks were on the way out. In 1972 the Grand National Circuit was sponsored by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and the circuit was renamed the Winston Cup. It was in the year 1972 that all of the 31 races on the Winston Cup Schedule were first held on asphalt. In 2003 RJR dropped its sponsorship and the Winston Cup became the NEXTEL Cup.

From 1972 to present day, NASCAR changed dramatically in many different ways. More and more fans were drawn to the sport which gave it greater exposure on a national level. Because of this exposure, Fortune 500 companies began to sponsor the cars. This increase in exposure and sponsorship led to the dramatic increase in driver’s earnings. In 1972, Bobby Allison was the earnings leader with $348,939. In 1982, Darrell Waltrip lead the earnings field with $682,085. In 1992, $1,197,550 was won by Bill Elliot. A huge jump in 2002’s earnings brought Mark Martin $5,279,400 that year. And just last year in 2005, Tony Stewart brought home the bacon with $6,824,079 in winnings.

More people watched NASCAR than baseball and basketball in 2005. Only the NFL outranks NASCAR in terms of television ratings. Today, NASCAR sanctions over 1500 races on over 100 tracks in 38 states, Canada and Mexico. The Daytona 500 in 1979 was the first time that a NASCAR race was televised from start to finish. When the government banned tobacco advertising on television, companies began to sponsor cars. Sponsorship changed from decade to decade. It began with RJR and then moved on to companies such as STP and Purolator. In the eighties sponsorship came from no-names like Tri-City Aluminum and Belden Asphalt. Nowadays you will find mainstream companies such as UPS and Budweiser sponsoring not only cars but also the races. In the early eighties a full season of sponsorship only cost $450,000. By the nineties it had reached $1 million. Today, common sponsorship per season is $6 million.

Sponsorship dollars and driver’s earnings are not the only thing that evolved over time concerning NASCAR. The cars themselves have changed dramatically over NASCAR’s fifty-seven year existence. Bill France’s original idea was to race cars for as little money as possible. By putting a stock car on the track, only minimal modification to the car was possible. This kept costs low. These cars were truly Strictly Stock cars. In 1952 the first modifications appeared such as roll bars which were mostly for safety, and racing tires which were distributed by the Pure Oil Company. The fifties unveiled modifications such as aluminum brake drums by Buick. Also in the fifties, Lincoln, Oldsmobile, and Hudson began using “severe usage” kits that increased the amount of stress that the suspension could withhold. Hudson also won several races with its high performance “Twin H” carburetor. But probably the most important modification in the fifties came from Chevrolet with its 355-cubic inch small block V8. Some of the sixties innovations included a more aerodynamic design, and more tire and roll bar innovations. Dodge’s Hemi engine and new racing shock applications also appeared in the sixties. Among the new innovations in the seventies were the Hurst Airheart Brakes and innovations in handling. Most of the cars raced in the seventies were standardized and incorporated the “fast-back” rear window design. Also new in the seventies was the front and back spoiler configurations. The eighties decade allowed for downsized sedans with reduced wheelbases. The speed of the cars in the eighties became so dangerously high that NASCAR began mandating restrictor plates to keep speeds at 193-194 mph. Present day average race speeds are anywhere from 81mph-188mph. The average speed of the race largely depends on the track. The nineties brought on different chassis designs.

NASCAR has changed dramatically from its inception in the forties to present day. All aspects of NASCAR have evolved. It will continue to evolve as we see changes in the stock car that will make it safer for the driver. This is evident in the introduction of “The Car of Tomorrow” which will be mandated for most tracks in 2007. As far as the changes that will occur in the other aspects of NASCAR such as monetary rewards, sponsorship, and exposure, we will just have to see for ourselves.

[Lefty Noob]

Hey, great post pete_b. As a relative newcomer to NASCAR, I really enjoyed reading about its roots. I mean, I kind of knew that stock car racing dated back to the old moonshine runners, but I had no idea it was organized as early as 1934. You wouldn't happen to know what the first officially sanctioned NASCAR race was, would you?

[Tin Can]

The starting point.

At the end of the World War II, the request for new cars in the USA made a considerable jump with the return of the soldiers. The industry which had produced weaponry for 5 years applied at once their designs to the new cars. The result was the arrival on the market of fast, powerful and robust cars which were enjoyed by the young people of the time. Those started to organize more or less legal races, and soon trends started to form.
The American West was impassioned for the "sports" cars, the Midwest for those with uncovered wheels, whereas South-east chose the stock cars. A lot of these were modified to carry out the illegal alcohol traffic and used in the "races".
This passion for auto racing did not escape the promoters who quickly made an "official" sport out of it, creating many organizations, each with their own rules. Some of them were the NCSCC (National Championship Stock Car Circuit), NSCRA (National Stock Car Racing Association), etc....
Unfortunately, this prevented auto racing from reaching the national level. Moreover, no guarantee of payment was offered to the pilots: if there was money remaining in the pot after the race, so much better, if not...

The birth.

On December 14, 1947, Bill France, who was himself part of the NSCRA, decided to meet with thirty five of the leaders of all associations in place to draw the lines of what was going to become the American national automobile sport.
It took four days for the group to staighten all the rules, to choose the name of NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) and the Association was finally officially created on February 21, 1948.The first races.

They were run the same year with modified pre-war cars, which later became the "modified" series. The championship comprised 52 races, and the first winner was Red Byron, who pocketed $1250.
As soon as 1949, Bill France put his very first idea into practice: a "strictly stock" series - no modification accepted. This brought a controversy which one can describe as historical at the end of the first race at Charlotte. Glenn Dunnaway won the race with his 1947 Ford, but was declared illegal because of a modification of the rear springs (Dunnaway used his car to carry moonshine). Jim Roper pocketed the $5000 with his Mercury 1949.
The championship of only eight races, was once again won by Red Byron.

[Lefty Noob]

Cool, thanks Tin Can. You and pete_b are just fountains of NASCAR info!

[vinceadams9]

I know the first race in Atlanta was won by a moonshiner out of Dawsonville Georgia his last name was Sosebee, this was when it was called Grand National before Nascar and some of the drivers were refered to as The Ridge Runners.

[Bob Tanner]

Pete, both you and Tin Can have posted excellent and extremely informative posts. I admire fellow historians and enjoyed reading your offerings.

You almost have it completely correct but a couple of your statements are a bit misleading. Not wrong, exactly, but rather could stand some minor adding on, if you wouldn't mind.

I don't have time to write an involved reply right now but, within the weekend, I'll addjust a little to your fine posts.

FYI, my information will come from three specific scorces: My own personal experience and knowledge about NASCAR and also Gred Fielding and Bob Latford, both noted NASCAR historians and statisticians.

Pleaae don't think I'm criticizing your fine posts. But I'd like to expand on them a bit.

[nascat]

I live seven miles from Dawsonville, the winner at Atlanta was Gober Sosebee.

[vinceadams9]

Thanks Nascat I used to live in Dahlonega but have moved to cartersville GA. But I still have alot of my family still living there, my branches of kin are Adams, Dowdy, Harkins, Welch. Hey maybe you even know a freind of mine Randy Waters, Rodney Waters, Ricky Grizzle, Vernon Grizzle and theres alot more, but thanks for giving me the first name of mr sosebee.

[TN_Gal]

Ah-haaa! I was right..Cartersville Ga.... I am just north of Y'all in Chatt

[Bob Tanner]

Pete, did you author this, or is it taken from a book or article? I'd be interested in the reference, if it is.

Originally Posted by pete_b

NASCAR History

The south became not only the home of moonshine, but the home of the stock car. NASCAR has a great history and has evolved in several different areas. ]

I'll buy that! It's a wonderful history of racing and America's love affair with the automobile.

Originally Posted by pete_b

The exposure of NASCAR has grown tremendously over the last five decades. The money involved in NASCAR has become so great that some drivers are the highest paid sportsmen in the world.

Statements like this drive me nuts. To name just two, F1 drivers and world soccer players are paid much more than NASCAR drivers.

Originally Posted by pete_b

There wasn’t any organized racing until 1934 .

I bet that's news to Carl Fisher who started the Indy 500 in 1911. The Vanderbuilt family ran a series of races as far back as 1908. And yes, they were stock cars! For example, the Marmon Wasp, the winner of Indy 500 #1, was a racing version of the Marmon runabout and I believe at least 20 Wasps were sold to the general public. I may be wrong here but I don't believe a car, specifically designed for the track showed up at Indy until 1915, when Ralph DePalma brought a specially built Mercedes to race.

Originally Posted by pete_b

There was a lot of competition, but Bill France’s NASCAR organization was a favorite among the racers..

And how! BTW The name Big Bill originally wanted to use was one he also promoted some races under, Stock Car Auto Racing Society (SCARS). Coolers heads prevailed at the Hotel Streamliner meeting and the name Nat'l Assoc for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR, but today the term "Stock car" is used advisedly) was adopted.

I digress. By 1949, NASCAR was fighting for supremacy with an alphabet soup of series. Nat'l Stock Car Racing Assoc (NSCRA), United Stock Car Racing Assoc (USCRA, Nat'l Auto Racing League (NARL), and American Stock Car Racing Assoc (ASCRA).

The most competition came from the first mentioned, NSCRA. A side note is the NSCRA was run by someone we all know, one Olin Bruton Smith, current chairman of Charlotte Motor Speedway and owner of several other tracks.

Originally Posted by pete_b

In 1949, NASCAR’s first Strictly Stock Car champion was Red Byron. In 1950, a popularity explosion occurred with the first paved speedway in Darlington, SC. The race at Darlington was 500 miles long which many thought to be ridiculous ..

Another little sidebar here: Darlington was conceived because Harold Brasington and Bob Colvin attended the Indy 500 in 1949 and stayed an extra week to see the Champ Cars (as AAA called them in '49) on the track at Winchester, IN. Darlington is an expended duplicate of Winchester except for the different turn radius because of the now-gone pond. The 500-mile idea also came from Brasington's approval of the Indy 500..

Originally Posted by pete_b

This Strictly Stock Car Circuit was renamed the Grand National Circuit in 1950 ..

NASCAR was founded with three distinct divisions, Strictly Stock (the headliner series), Modified and Roadster. The roadsters (mostly cut-down T-buckets) quickly went away and the money-maker was the modified division, which featured souped-up pre-war coupe bodies. There were 52 races held in '48, all modified, with the strictly stock cars running on a limited basis.

The first Strictly Stock event was actually run on 2/27/49. It was a trail race run as a supplementary event for the sports car race at Broward Speedway, near Miami. It was won by Bob Flock with Jim Rathman 2nd.

The first formal NASCAR race was run at the old Charlotte 3/4-mile dirt track on June 19th. Basically, the rest is history.-

Originally Posted by pete_b

In 1972 the Grand National Circuit was sponsored by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and the circuit was renamed the Winston Cup. It was in the year 1972 that all of the 31 races on the Winston Cup Schedule were first held on asphalt.

Now Pete, I know you didn't write this. This had to be written by some newspaper hack. Every NASCAR knows that RJR ruined (oops! My bad, I meant to say: began sponsoring) NASCAR in 1971.

Also, I'm sure that if you check, you'll find that the last NASCAR race on dirt was on the old Raleigh, NC ½-mile track on 9/30/70.

I hope you don't me expanding on your fine piece a bit.

[thunderfoot]

Most excellent research and statement dude.

[BiscuitMan]

The final dirt-track race in NASCAR Grand National history was September 30, 1970 at the State Fairgrounds Speedway in Raleigh, NC. The track is still there but not used for racing any more. I has there last Sunday for the state fair. Earlier during the day a demolition derby was held on what was the old straightaway. I attended a local stock car race there in 1974 state fair. Joie Chitwood was the main attraction.

Raleigh had another NASCAR track also. It was Raleigh Speedway. A one mile asphalt oval. The track was active from May 30, 1953 to July 4, 1958. The track was located north of the current I-440 beltline between Wake Forest Road and Atlantic Ave. The area today is an industrial park.

[DOF_power]

Nice tread, but ... there are some corrections to be made.

The south became not only the home of moonshine, but the home of the stock car.

Nope.

Motorsport was born in France in 1894 with the ACF city-to-city races. And all those cars that took on the event were production/stock cars.
Then came the Gordon Bennett Cup witch was also ran on what were essentially production/stock cars. At this time during the Cup era (1900-1905) the first race was staged on a closed figure of eight circuit at Athy in Ireland in 1903.
The french despite dominating these events were unhappy with the rules (only 3 manufacturers per country), so this bias/fervor of interest led to the birth of Grand Prix racing in 1906.
For the first 2 and 1/2 decade of its existence a Grand Prix car was essentially a production/stock car adapted/modified to the Grand-Prix Formula, and witch was run on closed road courses, street-circuits and ovals (yes ovals too) for about/up-to 500 km (310 miles).
This all changed in the 1930s with the advent of the first machines custom made for Grand-Prix racing (the Alfa P3 Monoposto) witch were open wheeled single seater open cockpit cigarette shaped racers vastly superior to their production/stock predecessors.
Parallel to Grand Prix racing was hill climb and rally racing witch were also run on production/stock cars but were against time and not on enclosed circuits.
And also sportcar/endurance racing was also run on stock/production cars, but these car as opposed to GP cars (pre Alfa P3) were closed wheeled and kept their bumpers.
But by the late 30s things were changing here too. Tweaked or custom engines, alcohol fuels added to custom aero-bodies meant that the Bugattis and BMWs endurance racers or late 30s were the middle-link/hybrids between the production/stock cars of the past and sport-prototypes of the future.
In America the Vanderbild Cup and Indianapolis 500 (miles this time) were also held on production/stock cars. And they followed the europeans in the 30s in the switch from production/stock cars to open-wheeled single-seater cigarette shaped machines, and even more in 1938 adopted Grand Prix regulations (the Indy "roadsters" were de facto Grand Prix racers).


As for (dirt) ovals, well the romans had their circuses thousands of years before. And both at Indy and in Europe there were production/stock cars racing on ovals (amongst other types of tracks) long before NASCAR was born.
The ealry moonshiners races held on dusty country back roads were similar to the Gordon Bennett Cup races pre 1903/pre closed circuits.

[PettyBlue]

Seems 1878 and 1896 are the dates in question. The First Car - A History of the Automobile I do not know as I am old but not that old,lol.

[BiscuitMan]

You are right DOF. Motorsport was born in France --- Bill France. He wasn't born until 1909. So, he was a legend before his time.