History of Nascar

Nascar is a very popular sport today. The history of Nascar began in 1947 when Bill France Sr. held a meeting in Daytona Beach about stock car racing. Stock car racing was very popular, but the rules varied from track to track. It was at that meeting that the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing was born and the history of Nascar began.

The first sanctioned race in the history of Nascar occurred on February 15, 1948. It was only a year later, in 1949 that the Nascar Winston Cup Series was started. The history of Nascar was insured by the immediate success of the racing events. By 1950, Darlington Raceway in South Carolina became the first asphalt track.

That first ten years of Nascar was one of great growth and saw many superstar emerge such as Lee Petter and Bill Rexford. Bill France Sr. wanted to keep Daytona associated with Nascar and built the Daytona International Speedway, one of the largest in the world. While the first Daytona 500 lasted three days, it was still a close finish and the fans loved it. Officials had to study a photo before declaring Lee Petty the winner.

By the time the first Nascar race was televised on ABC in 1961, names we know today like Richard Petty and Bobby Allison became the new racing heroes. And with these new heroes, the excitement and fan base grew. In 1976, the Winston Cup Series attracted almost 1.5 million fans. In 2003, Nextel purchase the rights to the Winston Cup Series and renamed it to the Nextel Cup Series.

Today, Nascar oversees over 1,500 races in the United States, Canada and Mexico and its success is undeniable. The only sport more watched by spectators in America is football and each year, $2 billions dollars is spent by Nascar’s 75 million fans. The headquarters are still located in Daytona.