NASCAR
Story by Kevin Gravenell
Photo Courtesty of: Nacar Media.com
The National Association for Stock Car Auto
Racing or “NASCAR” as it’s globally known was
founded In December 1947 by Bill France
Senior, who organized a meeting at the
Streamline Hotel across the Street from the
Atlantic Ocean Daytona Beech Raceway,
Florida. Since its inception as the Strictly Stock
Division, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has
seen many changes. In the beginning, the race
cars were driven off the street and onto the
track, but as safety technology advanced,
changes were made to cars. As the racing
machines of today are more complicated and
technical than ever, NASCAR has had to grow
from the small organization formed on the sands
of Daytona Beach, into a thriving global sport
watched by millions..
The first decade for the NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series was one of tremendous growth.
Characters became heroes and fans hung on
every turn of their wheels, Names like Lee Petty,
Fireball Roberts, Buck Baker, Herb Thomas, the
Flock brothers, Bill Rexford, Paul Goldsmith and
others became well known names in the early
days of NASCAR.
Then there was Richard Petty “The King" Buddy
Baker, Cale Yarborough, Ned Jarrett, David
Pearson and Bobby Allison who led NASCAR
racing through an era that featured a schedule
6
of more than 60 races a year on tracks from
Florida to California and onto Maine. They were
the heroes of those early days who laid the
foundation for the modern day heroes like
Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt
JR and Tony Stewart.
NASCAR is now America’s number one
spectator sport drawing in millions of viewers
from around the world. Most races we see
crowds of 100,000 plus and for the Daytona 500,
which is the biggest race of the NASCAR
season and probably biggest in the world around a quarter of a million fans turn up.
NASCAR is broadcasted to 150 different
countries around the world on a weekly basis
and globally ranked in second place as the most
watched motorsport events.
Forty three drivers line up the grid every race,
starting side by side, often racing three and four
abreast.
Racing speeds in excess of 200mph are
common place especially at tracks like Daytona
and Talladega where cars run three wide, ten
rows deep and only inches apart. As a result of
the close racing big crashes often happen where
as many as twenty cars can be wiped out in one
incident.
NASCAR costs big bucks, with anything from
10-20 million dollars required for a full season of
sponsorship with “Fortune 500” companies
including; MARS, Budweiser, Miller lite, Go
Daddy.com, Fed Ex, Mobile 1,UPS, Burger King
and McDonald's who all contribute to have their
brand on the race cars. The drivers earn top
dollar too. The champion’s purse is roughly six
million dollars and race earnings from the
season often surpass 10 million dollars. Jeff
Gordon, a four-times NASCAR Champion, has
earned over a hundred million dollars in a 20
year career.
NASCAR has multiple divisions, including a
Sprint Cup second tier, a nationwide series and
a third tier Camping World Truck Series. They
also run a Modified Tour, a Sports Car and Stock
Car series which are similar to the K&N pro East
and West Series. These all tour America and
Canada showing just how big the NASCAR
brand is!
For more information please check out the
NASCAR FANS UK Facebook group. We have
over 900 UK NASCAR fans. There are some
fantastic pictures, race info and much, much
more!
Tel: 0844 840 8104