Post by dodgehemi on Jan 24, 2010 11:22:29 GMT -5
A NASCAR History
A NASCAR history
Written by Monte Dutton
Wednesday, 03 December 2008 09:57
How did NASCAR begin? What began the process that enabled stock-car racing to reach a lofty status in the mainstream of American sports in the 1990s?
At the origin, what occurred was a coming together of two vastly different cultures. In the 1920s and 30s, Daytona Beach, Fla., had become the world’s preferred location for land-speed attempts. Eight records were set on the tightly packed beach from 1927 through 1935. Dating as far back as 1903, when Ransom Olds and Alexander Winton competed in a match race, races were also run on closed courses that used a 1.5-2.0-mile stretch of beach and a similar stretch on beachfront highway A1A. All this activity made Daytona Beach world-famous stretching the limits of automotive performance.
Meanwhile, in the Appalachian mountain chain and its foothills, stock-car racing emerged quite literally from criminal activity. To evade, outmaneuver and outrun the police, moonshine runners learned to “soup up†production cars. Racing those cars emerged as a sidelight, a weekend recreation, where moonshiners tested their cars against others. Before very long, there were even a few non-smugglers competing.
Throughout the 1940s, the cars got better and faster, and races featuring these modified “stock cars†became a popular form of entertainment in the South. Many of the races were held in Wilkes County, N.C., which became stock-car racing’s first hotbed.
Who put the two elements – rich sportsmen/adventurers and roughhewn moonshine runners – together? A mechanic named William Henry Getty France, who migrated from Washington, D.C., to Daytona Beach in 1935. France himself entered a race on the beach-road course in 1936, finishing fifth. By 1938, France took over promotion of the races.
France, the visionary, saw the commercial potential of “stock car†races, realizing that fans were bound to enjoy races involving vehicles that at least looked similar to the ones they were driving. In 1947, France called a meeting in Daytona Beach to provide a regular schedule, standardized rules and an organized championship. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) was formed at the city’s Streamline Hotel on Feb. 21, 1948.
Originally, there were three divisions -- Modified, Roadster and Strictly Stock – though the Roadster events didn’t gain popularity and Strictly Stock was shelved for the time being because American manufacturers were struggling to keep up with post-World War II production and demand. The 1948 Modified Schedule included 52 dirt-track races, beginning at Daytona Beach on Feb. 15. Red Byron won both that race and the season-long championship.
By 1949, France was ready to put his Strictly Stock cars on the track. A 20-mile exhibition was run in Miami. The first official race was run at Charlotte Speedway, near the site of that city’s present airport, on June 19. Jim Roper, who had come all the way from Kansas, was declared the winner after Glenn Dunaway was disqualified.
One track from that original season, Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, is still in use. Darlington (S.C.) Raceway was built the following year, becoming the first NASCAR track that was completely paved. Now all the tracks, including Martinsville, are paved in either asphalt or concrete.
In the early years of the Strictly Stock Division, cars were almost identical to factory models. It was renamed the Grand National division in 1950, and over the years, the cars strayed away from the original premise. Nowadays the vehicles in all three “national touring series†– Sprint Cup (descended from Strictly Stock and Grand National), Nationwide and Camping World Truck – are purpose-built to race and bear only superficial resemblance to production vehicles.
The construction of Darlington – originally 1.25 mi. but now 1.366 – led to a trend toward longer, wider faster tracks with banked turns. Darlington was unquestionably the sport’s most significant track until 1959, when France got Daytona International Speedway finished. The first Daytona 500 was a classic – Lee Petty over Johnny Beauchamp in a side-by-side finish – and that event is now the sport’s most famous.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, through its Winston brand, began sponsoring NASCAR’s top series in the 1970s, ushering in an era of rapid growth. In 1972, the season was shortened from 48 to 31 races, touching off what is now known as NASCAR’s Modern Era.
National Sportsman, the second-rung series, evolved into “Grand National†once Grand National was renamed Winston Cup. Eventually it became “Busch Grand National,†then merely “Busch†and, in 2008, the Nationwide Series. What was originally called the SuperTruck Series by Craftsman debuted in 1995 and evolved from a short-track series into schedule similar in track composition to the Cup and Nationwide schedules. Today most NASCAR weekends include Nationwide and/or Truck races as undercards to the Sprint Cup main events.
The modern incarnation of what would eventually become the Nationwide Series began in 1982. Today the Nationwide is the only major touring series to hold races outside the United States. A recent development is the presence of several drivers who compete full-time in both Cup and Nationwide. The last three champions – Kevin Harvick in 2006, Carl Edwards in 2007 and Clint Bowyer in 2008 – were also Cup regulars, though no one has ever won both championships in the same year.
The reigning champion of what, beginning in 2009, will be the Camping World Truck Series, is Johnny Benson, who won the championship by only seven points over three-time champion Ron Hornaday.
Television increasingly fueled NASCAR’s rise. Occasional live races were televised during the 1970s, though most often, only the final 90 minutes were shown. Another common practice was the airing of edited versions, usually a week late, on “ABC’s Wide World of Sports.†In 1979, CBS televised the Daytona 500 “flag to flag,†and the event turned NASCAR into something of a national phenomenon for two reasons: (1.) horrible, wintry weather blanketed the East Coast, keeping millions of fans inside looking for TV programming; and (2.) Richard Petty won only after the leaders, Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison, crashed (and then fought, along with Donnie’s brother Bobby) at the end of the back straight.
When Nextel (later known as Sprint) replaced Winston as corporate sponsor of the top series in 2004, a new championship format, the so-called “Chase,†was implemented. The “regular-season†standings, accumulated over the first 26 races, were realigned for a “Chase†among 10 drivers over the final 10 races. The number of drivers was increased to 12 in 2007.
Jimmie Johnson became the second driver to win three straight championships, mastering the Chase format in 2006-08 to match the feat achieved by Cale Yarborough in 1976-78. A new car design, originally called “the Car of Tomorrow,†was introduced in 2007 and fully implemented in 2008.
NASCAR’s all-time leader in Cup victories is Richard Petty, who won 200 races and seven championships. The late Dale Earnhardt also won seven titles. The only other driver with more than three championships is Jeff Gordon, who claimed the top spot in 1995, ’97, ’98 and 2001.
A NASCAR history
Written by Monte Dutton
Wednesday, 03 December 2008 09:57
How did NASCAR begin? What began the process that enabled stock-car racing to reach a lofty status in the mainstream of American sports in the 1990s?
At the origin, what occurred was a coming together of two vastly different cultures. In the 1920s and 30s, Daytona Beach, Fla., had become the world’s preferred location for land-speed attempts. Eight records were set on the tightly packed beach from 1927 through 1935. Dating as far back as 1903, when Ransom Olds and Alexander Winton competed in a match race, races were also run on closed courses that used a 1.5-2.0-mile stretch of beach and a similar stretch on beachfront highway A1A. All this activity made Daytona Beach world-famous stretching the limits of automotive performance.
Meanwhile, in the Appalachian mountain chain and its foothills, stock-car racing emerged quite literally from criminal activity. To evade, outmaneuver and outrun the police, moonshine runners learned to “soup up†production cars. Racing those cars emerged as a sidelight, a weekend recreation, where moonshiners tested their cars against others. Before very long, there were even a few non-smugglers competing.
Throughout the 1940s, the cars got better and faster, and races featuring these modified “stock cars†became a popular form of entertainment in the South. Many of the races were held in Wilkes County, N.C., which became stock-car racing’s first hotbed.
Who put the two elements – rich sportsmen/adventurers and roughhewn moonshine runners – together? A mechanic named William Henry Getty France, who migrated from Washington, D.C., to Daytona Beach in 1935. France himself entered a race on the beach-road course in 1936, finishing fifth. By 1938, France took over promotion of the races.
France, the visionary, saw the commercial potential of “stock car†races, realizing that fans were bound to enjoy races involving vehicles that at least looked similar to the ones they were driving. In 1947, France called a meeting in Daytona Beach to provide a regular schedule, standardized rules and an organized championship. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) was formed at the city’s Streamline Hotel on Feb. 21, 1948.
Originally, there were three divisions -- Modified, Roadster and Strictly Stock – though the Roadster events didn’t gain popularity and Strictly Stock was shelved for the time being because American manufacturers were struggling to keep up with post-World War II production and demand. The 1948 Modified Schedule included 52 dirt-track races, beginning at Daytona Beach on Feb. 15. Red Byron won both that race and the season-long championship.
By 1949, France was ready to put his Strictly Stock cars on the track. A 20-mile exhibition was run in Miami. The first official race was run at Charlotte Speedway, near the site of that city’s present airport, on June 19. Jim Roper, who had come all the way from Kansas, was declared the winner after Glenn Dunaway was disqualified.
One track from that original season, Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, is still in use. Darlington (S.C.) Raceway was built the following year, becoming the first NASCAR track that was completely paved. Now all the tracks, including Martinsville, are paved in either asphalt or concrete.
In the early years of the Strictly Stock Division, cars were almost identical to factory models. It was renamed the Grand National division in 1950, and over the years, the cars strayed away from the original premise. Nowadays the vehicles in all three “national touring series†– Sprint Cup (descended from Strictly Stock and Grand National), Nationwide and Camping World Truck – are purpose-built to race and bear only superficial resemblance to production vehicles.
The construction of Darlington – originally 1.25 mi. but now 1.366 – led to a trend toward longer, wider faster tracks with banked turns. Darlington was unquestionably the sport’s most significant track until 1959, when France got Daytona International Speedway finished. The first Daytona 500 was a classic – Lee Petty over Johnny Beauchamp in a side-by-side finish – and that event is now the sport’s most famous.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, through its Winston brand, began sponsoring NASCAR’s top series in the 1970s, ushering in an era of rapid growth. In 1972, the season was shortened from 48 to 31 races, touching off what is now known as NASCAR’s Modern Era.
National Sportsman, the second-rung series, evolved into “Grand National†once Grand National was renamed Winston Cup. Eventually it became “Busch Grand National,†then merely “Busch†and, in 2008, the Nationwide Series. What was originally called the SuperTruck Series by Craftsman debuted in 1995 and evolved from a short-track series into schedule similar in track composition to the Cup and Nationwide schedules. Today most NASCAR weekends include Nationwide and/or Truck races as undercards to the Sprint Cup main events.
The modern incarnation of what would eventually become the Nationwide Series began in 1982. Today the Nationwide is the only major touring series to hold races outside the United States. A recent development is the presence of several drivers who compete full-time in both Cup and Nationwide. The last three champions – Kevin Harvick in 2006, Carl Edwards in 2007 and Clint Bowyer in 2008 – were also Cup regulars, though no one has ever won both championships in the same year.
The reigning champion of what, beginning in 2009, will be the Camping World Truck Series, is Johnny Benson, who won the championship by only seven points over three-time champion Ron Hornaday.
Television increasingly fueled NASCAR’s rise. Occasional live races were televised during the 1970s, though most often, only the final 90 minutes were shown. Another common practice was the airing of edited versions, usually a week late, on “ABC’s Wide World of Sports.†In 1979, CBS televised the Daytona 500 “flag to flag,†and the event turned NASCAR into something of a national phenomenon for two reasons: (1.) horrible, wintry weather blanketed the East Coast, keeping millions of fans inside looking for TV programming; and (2.) Richard Petty won only after the leaders, Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison, crashed (and then fought, along with Donnie’s brother Bobby) at the end of the back straight.
When Nextel (later known as Sprint) replaced Winston as corporate sponsor of the top series in 2004, a new championship format, the so-called “Chase,†was implemented. The “regular-season†standings, accumulated over the first 26 races, were realigned for a “Chase†among 10 drivers over the final 10 races. The number of drivers was increased to 12 in 2007.
Jimmie Johnson became the second driver to win three straight championships, mastering the Chase format in 2006-08 to match the feat achieved by Cale Yarborough in 1976-78. A new car design, originally called “the Car of Tomorrow,†was introduced in 2007 and fully implemented in 2008.
NASCAR’s all-time leader in Cup victories is Richard Petty, who won 200 races and seven championships. The late Dale Earnhardt also won seven titles. The only other driver with more than three championships is Jeff Gordon, who claimed the top spot in 1995, ’97, ’98 and 2001.