NASCAR and Its Greatest Drivers

NASCAR and Its Greatest Drivers — page 3 — NASCAR TEEN AND Now rom its humble beginnings on the beaches of Florida NASCAR racing has grown to become one of the most popular spectator sports in the United States NASCAR in full the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is the premier organization in American stock car racing which today features purpose built race cars that outwardly resemble standard model cars It s a far cry from the sport s early days when drivers might race acar they drove to the track NASCAR's BEGINNINGS Stock car racing is said to have originated dur ing the Prohibition period 1919 33 when the manufacture transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages was outlawed in the United States Illegal still operators needing cars capable of more than ordinary speed to

NASCAR and Its Greatest Drivers — page 4 — NASCAR THEN AND Now SHELL Car racing has a long history beginning with the first gas powered automobiles Fox Photos Hulton Archive Getty Images evade the law while transporting liquor tuned and altered ordinary passenger automobiles to make them faster After the endof Prohibition these cars were raced for pleasure particularly in the southeastern states Stock car racing became popular on the shores of Daytona Beach Fla in the 1930s The key figure on the Daytona race ing scene was Bill France an auto mechanic

NASCAR and Its Greatest Drivers — page 5 — NASCAR ITS GREATEST DRIVERS RAND and sometime race car driver who organized stock car races on the beach throughout the 1930s and 40s In 1947 after several unsuc cessful attempts to create a series of races that would determine a national champion France created the National Championship Stock Car Circuit NCSCC a yearlong series of 40 races held across the southeast ern United States France was responsible Bill France Sr NASCAR's founder and first president walks down the Daytona International Speedway in 1968 Eric Schweikardt Sports Illustrated Getty Images IO

NASCAR and Its Greatest Drivers — page 6 — NASCAR TEN AND Now for establishing and enforcing the technical regulations that governed the cars and he created a scoring system that would award drivers points used to determine a series champion He also organized and promoted each race and awarded cash prizes to the win ners of races and to the series champion Although the NCSCC was successful France had greater ambitions He organized a series of meetings in December 1947 with the goal of establishing a still larger stock car racing series What emerged from those meetings was NASCAR which replaced the NCSCC France was its first president The first NASCAR race was held on January 4 1948 in Pompano Beach Florida In February of that year NASCAR was incorpo rated with France the primary stockholder In 1949 NASCAR changed the rules governing the cars Up to that time mod ifieds cars varying in age and in the mechanical modifications made to them for the purpose of racing were allowed to com pete Starting in June 1949 however only late model recently manufactured stock cars were permitted Races that year were called Strictly Stock races and Red Byron became the series champion II

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