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Nascar
By Jobby, Thu Dec 8th
In 1947, the sport of stock car racing was becoming extremelypopular and beginning to draw large crowds of spectators. Moredrivers began taking an interest due to the increasing fanpopularity. Cohesiveness, however, did not exist as rulesdiffered from one racetrack to the next. Several tracks werebuilt to produce one big show at a county fair, or similarevent, in order to capitalize on the crowds of fans that werebeginning to form. Other tracks, however, were built more towardhandling the cars and not the crowds. Some tracks couldaccommodate both the fans and the cars, but did little to adhereto the rules governing the neighboring tracks. In late 1947, on a December day in Florida, Bill France Sr.organized a meeting at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach.His focus for the meeting was to discuss the matters facing thefuture of stock car racing. From this meeting emerged, what isnow known as, (The National Association of Stock Car AutoRacing). When the meeting adjourned, few people had faith in thenew organization or it's future. France, however, knewotherwise. In fact, he believed that a sanctioning body wasexactly what the sport needed, but even he could not haveimagined what he created on that December day. The sport of began to take shape rather quickly. Aftertwo months, the inaugural NASCAR-sanctioned race was held onDaytona's Beach Course. Red Byron, a stock car legend, drove hisFord Modified to win the event on February 15, 1948. It wasn'tuntil the following year that what we now know as NextelCup Series began. The first ever Grand National (nowknown as Nextel Cup) event was held at the Charlotte, NorthCarolina fairgrounds. A huge crowd gathered to see Jim Roper ofKansas win this historic race. The new series was an instantsuccess and plans were ongoing to bring in larger crowds, moredrivers and faster races. In 1950, Darlington Raceway, thecountry's first asphalt superspeedway, opened it's doors for thenew division. The first decade for was one of tremendousgrowth and popularity. Drivers became heroes and skeptics becamerace fans. Names like Lee Petty, Fireball Roberts and Buck Bakerwere to racing as Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and 'The Duke' wereto baseball.
With the growing success of this new sport, Bill France Sr.began construction of a 2.5 mile, high-banked superspeedwaylocated
four miles from the beach in Daytona. France fought tokeep racing affiliated with Daytona as others looked to theBonneville Salt Flats in Utah to avoid the outgoing tides atDaytona Beach. Despite the desire of the city of Daytona holdonto it's beach racing attraction, quickly outgrew thebeach. In 1949, moved it's events to the DaytonaInternational Speedway. The first Daytona 500 continued for 3days due to a dispute over the actual winner, which was laterproven to be Lee Petty, after careful study of a photograph ofthe finish. In 1960, superspeedways opened just outside of Atlanta, Georgiaand Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1961, ABC televised a racefrom Daytona. In 1969, Alabama International Motor Speedway (nowknown as Talladega Superspeedway) was opened by Bill France Sr.In later years, Bill Sr. passed the torch of leadership to hisson, Bill Jr. and corporate sponsorships began to arise asNASCAR went on to become the leader in worldwide motorsportsattendance. In 1979, the Daytona 500 was telecast in it'sentirety. By 1989, every race on the schedule wasbroadcast. Since the beginning of NASCAR, new additions have been added toinclude the Craftsman Truck and Busch Grand Nationalseries. New drivers emerge every year to take their shot atstardom. For many, it's a lifelong dream to drive andcompete for the glorious title of 'Champion.' At the end of theseason, points are tallied to see who has ran the mostconsistently throughout the year and that person becomes thatyear's champion for their respected series. With the extreme growth of through the years, fans havedemanded more opportunities to enjoy their favorite sport. Theorganization heard their voices and decided to build NASCARThunder, a chain of officially-licensed apparel and souvenirstores, and the Café, which incorporates racing withdining for a full racing experience for all fans. After58 years, the sport continues to grow with fans who travelacross the country to see their favorite driver chase thecheckered flag and, ultimately, a championship. About the author:Bob is with EZ TicketSearch - providing premium seating in the secondary marketto sports, concerts, broadway events and NASCAR Tickets. Visit my blog Event Outlet to read moreNASCAR articles.
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