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A Yankee's Guide To NASCAR

If you've heard yourself say...Who's Richard Petty? This is for you.

From humble (and sandy) beginnings, stock car racing has trans formed itself into America's fastest growing sport. For a 50-year-old, NASCAR is remarkably spry and spirited. When the sport's founders met for the first time at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida, on December 14, 1947, not one of them could imagine how big and dynamic their enterprise would eventually become.

In attendance were a moonshiner or two, an Atlanta garage operator, a South Carolina turnip farmer, a Rhode Island motorcycle dealer, a New York midget-race promoter and assorted hustlers. The real motivator was William Henry Getty France, owner of a small local service station. France, a sometime driver, had latched onto racing with a determination, seriousness and enthusiasm that would nurse the sport through its infancy. The meeting, held in the hotel's bar, stretched out over three days but resulted in no formal resolutions, except that Louis (Red) Vogtt, the garage operator, proposed the organization be named NASCAR, standing for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.

How We Got…NASCAR 65 million B.C. Dinosaurs rule the Earth, then croak. Millions of years later, their bones have transformed into either museum pieces or NASCAR nectar. 3 A.D. Roman chariot races become popular. Horses trade hair, slave pit crews form, and imperial sponsorship pays the bills. 1885 The internal-combustion engine is invented, killing any hopes for a National Association of Steam Car Automotive Racing. 1903 Henry Ford is determined to sell every American an automobile, ushering in mass production of stock cars and, eventually, air fresheners. 1940s Tax-man-dodging bootleggers leave burnouts all over the South. This combines three things important to NASCAR. 1948 William France creates NASCAR by merging several floundering racing tracks. He’s the Elvis of the racing world. 2005 NASCAR is the best excuse to inhale car exhaust, cheer heavy metal carnage, and wage war in the Middle East.

The group decided it needed a lawyer to draw up documents. Bill France knew an attorney named Louis Ossinsky who ~ practiced in an office near his service station. He was one of France's few cash customers. That was reason enough to ~ hire him for the Febxuaxy 21, 1948, meeting, at which time NASCAR became a private corporation owned by France, Ossinsky and Bill Tuthill, the New York promoter. (Ed Otto, a New Jersey race promoter, would acquire shares later, then be bought out.) France would serve as president until he retired in 1972, turning the executive office over to his oldest son, Bill Jr. Over time, the France family bought out all their partners.

NASCAR's mandate has been simple from the start: peddle franchises to racetrack promoters willing to affiliate with the sanctioning body. That first racing season, NASCAR held 54 races, beginning with the Rayson Memorial 150, an event for modified cars on the 3.2-mile beach course at Daytona. The late Louis (Red) Byron of Boulder, Colorado, won in a souped-up Ford built by Vogt. He averaged 75.94 miles per hour and finished 15 seconds ahead of local driver Marshall Teague. Byron pocketed $1,000 of the total $3,000 purse.

The next year, NASCAR added a division for late-model stock cars. It was called Strictly Stock, today known as the Winston-Cup Series. The first Strictly Stock race, held June 19, 1949, took place on a three-quarter-mile dirt track in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was planned and sponsored by France. Jim Roper of Kansas won over Fonty Flock in a Lincoln and banked $2,000. NASCAR's first race ended in controversy. Glen Dunnaway was flagged the winner but his 1947 Ford was disqualified for "illegal use of rear springs." The starting field of 33 cars featured Lincolns, Hudsons, Oldsmobiles, Fords, Buicks, Chryslers, Kaisers, Mercurys and one Cadillac.

Besides Charlotte, Martinsville Speedway, the Beach-Road course at Daytona, the Occoneechee Speedway at Hillsboro, NC, Langhorne, PA, Hamburg, NY, Heidelberg Speedway in Pittsburgh, PA and North Wilkesboro Speedway were part of the inaugural eight-race, "Strictly Stock Division" schedule in 1949. Red Byron, who started only six of the races, also won at Daytona and posted four top five finishes to win his title and $5,800 for the season. He finished 117.5 points over Lee Petty. In 1950, the Strictly Stock title was replaced by NASCAR Grand National.

Progress was slow in those early years. Racing in its infancy was at best a wild, raw sport, and without exception the tracks were unsafe. Whenever there was a crash, it was every man for himself, whether driver or spectator. Promoters were notorious for staging races and fleeing with gate receipts. There was a crying need for organization, regulation and continuity, all of which were in short order during that era.

A series of events boosted the sport to its current level of respectability and profitability. First, NASCAR formed a crucial alliance with the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in 1971. The Winston brand of cigarettes began sponsoring a 500-mile race at Talladega, Alabama, and established a cumulative-point fund worth $100,000 for the season's leading drivers. Reynolds also began providing substantial advertising and promotional support on a nationwide scale.

Television gave the sport its next major upgrade in 1979, when CBS broadcast the Daytona 500 from start to finish. (Previously, networks had covered auto racing only in a tape-delayed or edited fashion.) And CBS got quite a show with Richard Petty taking the checkered flag, while Cale Yarborough and the Allison brothers-Donnie and Bobby-engaged in a donnybrook right on the track. Little more than a year later, NASCAR would move its awards banquet from Daytona to New York. The wheels were really starting to roll.

What next? How about the presidential seal of approval? NASCAR received it on July 4, 1984, when Ronald Reagan attended the Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway. He witnessed an epic battle between Petty and Yarborough. The first fan's attendance ensured that the national press covered Petty's 200th career victory. NASCAR's final stepping-stone came in 1994 with the inaugural Brickyard 400 at the hallowed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

All these factors have contributed to NASCAR's remarkable evolution. The sport, once a provincial pastime of the Southeast, has gradually washed the red clay from its hands and put on cufflinks and Italian loafers.

Drivers began making big-time money. While salaries and sponsor compensation for the sport's top names add up to more than $3 million a year, endorsement fees have absolutely exploded. By stamping their names and likenesses on shirts and hats (and detergents, canned hams, cereal boxes and automobile batteries), series stars are reaping up to $40 million a year.

Meanwhile, the Winston Cup Series continues to grow. In 1997, NASCAR established two new venues: Bruton Smith's new track in Fort Worth, Texas; and Roger Penske's new facility in California. This year, Las Vegas gets a date, and Kansas City has announced plans to build a track.

Therein lies a problem. Bill France Jr. wants to remain loyal to the small market tracks that helped his father in the early years. But now everybody wants a date, and there are only so many weekends on the racing calendar. Like many other prosperous 50-yearolds, NASCAR is experiencing a little middle-aged spread.

From Winston Cup To NEXTEL Cup

From 1972 through 2003, NASCAR's premier series was called the Winston Cup Series. It was sponsored by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco (RJR) as an advertising mechanism to bring attention to its Winston brand of cigarettes. In its later years, RJR's sponsorship became more controversial in the wake of U.S. legislation that sharply restricted avenues for tobacco advertising.

The changes in NASCAR that resulted from RJR's involvement cause many fans to refer to 1972 as the beginning of the "Modern Era". The season was made shorter, and the point system was modified. Races on dirt tracks were removed from the schedule, as were oval races shorter than 250 miles. NASCAR's founder, Bill France, Sr., turned over control of NASCAR to his son, Bill France Jr..

In 2003, RJR dropped its sponsorship of the top series, and NASCAR obtained a sponsorship from NEXTEL, a telecommunications company. The contract was not renewed for several reasons; one, because of the steady decline of revenue of RJR, and two, because cigarette and other forms of tobacco advertising were deemed illegal by the U.S. Congress in 2002. In 2003, the Cup series became known as the NEXTEL Cup.

The merger between Sprint and NEXTEL will potentially result in the series being renamed Sprint Cup , although it is still being discussed and debated by all involved parties. [citation needed] (The name Sprint Cup might be confusing because there already is a class of racecars called sprint cars, which are quite different from stock cars.)

Get Used To Calling NASCAR's Premier Series The Sprint Cup

At Daytona International Speedway, executives from NASCAR and Sprint Nextel will announce the switch from Nextel Cup to Sprint Cup for the 2008 season and beyond. Following R.J. Reynolds' decision to leave the sport in 2003, Nextel announced plans to sponsor NASCAR's top series for a 10-year period, beginning with the 2004 season. The terms of the agreement were never publically announced, but were believed to be between $70 and $75 million per year with the value increasing with each season.

The new sponsorship was a win-win situation for both sides at that point. NASCAR could expand its marketing efforts to fans under the age of 18 - which it could not do with Winston - and Nextel wound up with new loyal fan base to solidify its efforts in the wireless telecommunications sector.

Benny Phillips covers auto racing for the High Point North Carolina Enterprise. Right on Track. Mike Hembree covers auto racing for Greenville (S.C.) News. Shifting gears. TV Guide. February 14-20, 1998

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