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 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
NASCAR AND ITS GREATEST DRIVERS NOTABLE WoMEN OF NASCAR's EARLY DAYS SARA CHRISTIAN Sara Christian 1918 1980 finished 14th of 33 drivers in NASCAR s first Strictly Stock race held in Charlotte N C on June 19 1949 She also took part in six other races in 1949 50 earning two top 10 finishes She was voted Woman Driver of the Year in 1949 S ETHEL FLOCK MoBLEY o Ethel Flock Mobley 1920 1984 participated in two Strictly Stock races in 1949 In the Daytona ASIA THE Box BOB FLOCK na OOD SO SIMPSON ST JR Ethel Flock Mobley was named after ethyl the type of gas ber father used in his taxi RacingOne IsC Archives Getty Images
NASCAR THEN AND Now Beach race on July 10 she competed against her three brothers Tim Fonty and Bob defeating two of them It was the only NASCAR event to feature four siblings Mobley also competed in many all women races LoUISE SMITH Louise Smith 1916 2006 got her start outrun ning the police in her native South Carolina Nicknamed the Good Or Gal by her fellow racers Smith competed in IT Strictly Stock and Grand National races between 1949 and a 1952 with four top 20 finishes She was the first woman inducted into the International L Motorsports Hall of Fame RSE TO NATIONAL PROMINENCE France changed the name of the series to Grand National in 1950 That name was used until 1971 when the tobacco company R J Reynolds bought sponsorship rights to the series and renamed it the Winston Cup Series it was also known as the Cup Series or NASCAR Cup Series By then stock cars were built specifically for rac ing NASCAR s rules required cars to resemble their stock counterparts in their dimensions and appearance but car own ers drivers and mechanics increasingly 13
