With its historical roots dating back to 1949, NASCAR Racing has grown to be the largest motor-sports series in North America with approximately 75 million fans world wide.  But did you ever wonder just how NASCAR Racing began?

NASCAR Racing In The Beginning…

It was the early 1930′s and Bill France (Sr.) was working as a mechanic in his own garage near Washington, DC.  In his free time he was also racing the local dirt track circuit.

In 1934 Bill moved from Washington, DC to Daytona Beach Florida.  Although Bill had originally intended to move to the Miami area, his car broke down in Daytona Beach and because he liked the area he decided to stay there.  Although at the time Daytona Beach was famous for its land speed record attempts along the beach, the larger (and safer) Bonneville Salt Flats had just opened and Daytona was losing much of its speed record appeal.

In 1936 Bill France Sr. was a local gas station owner and was active in the local racing scene when Daytona Beach held its first beach/road course race. Naturally Bill entered and finished fifth in that first race.  A few years later Bill was asked to run the races as a promoter.  Having no enthusiasm about taking on the job, Bill searched for someone else to take on the responsibility.  However, after failing to find anyone else who would do it, Bill finally agreed…

Having taken time off to work in the Daytona Boat Works during World War 2, Bill ultimately returned to motor-sports and promoting races on the Daytona Beach/Road course.  It was during this time that Bill was getting frustrated with unscrupulous race promoters who would promise big paydays to auto racers but ultimately disappear with the prize money.  He further believed that drivers could earn more money and enjoy better races if there were rules and regulations, as well as a strong sanctioning body to back them up.

Having brainstormed these ideas and pondered various alternatives, in December of 1947 Bill gathered together a group of race promoters, officials and drivers to discuss his ideas.  After numerous meetings and discussions of this nature, NASCAR Racing was officially born on February 21st, 1948.

On June 19th, 1949 the very first NASCAR Racing series event was held at the 3/4 mile dirt Charlotte Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina.

How NASCAR has Evolved

From the racers’ perspective in the earlier days of NASCAR, being able to put a race car together was not an expensive investment. If a brand-new Chevy sold for around $3,800, and considering the fact that there was little or no modification to be done to it, the actual race car could be raced for a very cheap investment. In some instances, rental cars were actually used by point-chasing drivers who had no guaranteed ride for a given event. Cars were typically either driven to the track or towed behind pick-ups and family sedans.  Other than some minor tweaking and tuning of the engine, nothing needed to be done to these early race cars that were strictly stock. Essentially, in the earlier day there were no roll bars, the window was intact, and aircraft harnesses, or sometimes even ropes, were used as seat belts.  When these cars rolled out on the track they were practically like showroom cars.

One of the many benefits of implementing the strictly stock design was the tremendous diversity of manufacturers with their cars on the track. For example, the first official strictly stock division race had nine makes on the line that included Buick, Cadillac, Chrysler, Ford, Hudson, Kaiser, Lincoln, Mercury and Oldsmobile However, as one would suspect, using a genuine “stock” automobile for racing had its downfalls.

One of the most significant problems were tire, wheel, and suspension failures brought on by stresses that were atypical of normal road use.  This was especially true with the rough-surfaced dirt tracks that were predominant in the early days of racing.  Nevertheless, the only modification that was allowed to the stock racing cars was a reinforcing steel plate on the right front wheel which helped to prevent the lug nuts from pulling right through the rim on factory wheels. Otherwise, racing stock cars in the early days of the sport was very much a bare bones ordeal.

For a certain number of years, that concept certainly worked and, through the support of fans, competitors and manufacturers, it continued to thrive. But the variety of race tracks in use and the intensity of the competition level necessitated various modifications. While many of these were instituted in the interest of safety, manufacturers found that there were ways to integrate high performance parts into their mainstream production line.