Starting from the Daytona Beach Race
Nascar has become the most prestigious car racing event in the United States. From its beginnings as the Strictly Stock Division, to now the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, this racing event has developed into one of the most popular sports in the world. Initially, racing cars were pushed off the road and onto the track, but along with advances in automotive safety technology, these changes were made to NASCAR cars, because today’s racing machines are more complicated and have sophisticated technology than before. NASCAR has grown rapidly from a small community formed in the Daytona Beach area to a popular sport in almost all corners of the country. Here are some important milestones in NASCAR history.
On February 21, 1948, the National Association for Stock Car Racing—or NASCAR, was officially founded. NASCAR racing would go on to become one of America’s most popular sports, as well as a multi-billion dollar industry. The driving force behind the founding of NASCAR was William “Bill” France Senior (1909-1992), a mechanic and auto repair shop owner from Washington, D.C., who moved to Daytona Beach, Florida in the mid-1930s. The Daytona area was a hotbed of racing enthusiasts, and France took to the auto racing scene and promoting it. After seeing how the rules of racing changed from event to event and seeing unscrupulous promoters running away with large sums of money, France felt the need for a governing body to sanction and promote racing. He gathered members of the racing community to brainstorm the idea. NASCAR was born, with its inauguration in February 1948. France served as NASCAR’s first president and played a key role in shaping its development in the early decades of the sport. 2. NASCAR officially held its first race in 1949
NASCAR held its first Strictly Stock race on June 19, 1949, at Charlotte Speedway, North Carolina. Around 13 thousand fans attended to watch Glenn Dunnaway complete the first 200 laps of the race using his Ford car. However, Jim Roper (who drove a Lincoln car) managed to collect a prize of 2000 US dollars after Dunnaway was disqualified for illegally using rear springs on his vehicle. In the early years of NASCAR, drivers drove the same types of cars that people drove on the road at that time, such as Buicks, Cadillacs, Oldsmobiles, among others – with minimal modifications. Unlike today, where car modifications have been adjusted to needs. 3. NASCAR slowly became popular throughout the United States
In 1950, the first NASCAR-based track, Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, had opened. More new racetracks were opened, including Daytona International Speedway, which opened in 1959. Lee Petty won the first Daytona 500, held on February 22 of that year. The Daytona 500 opened NASCAR’s season and was one of its premiere events. Lee Petty’s son Richard, who began his racing career in 1958, won a record seven Daytona 500s and became NASCAR’s first superstar before retiring in 1992. On February 18, 1979, the first live televised Daytona 500 was broadcast. The late-race brawl between drivers Cale Yarborough and Donnie and Bobby Allison caused a stir and helped boost NASCAR’s popularity nationwide.