| You will no doubt have heard of NASCAR, but do | | | | more Fortune 500 companies sponsor NASCAR |
| you know what it means and how much do you | | | | than any other motor sport. |
| know about it? In this short article I will give you | | | | Daytona Beach became the headquarters of |
| a brief history of NASCAR. | | | | NASCAR more or less by default, because in the |
| NASCAR is an acronym for the National | | | | Twenties and Thirties, Daytona was the most |
| Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. | | | | successful surface in the world for achieving new |
| Surprisingly, it was started as a family business in | | | | world land speed records. Previously beaches in |
| 1947 by Bill France Sr. and is still family owned | | | | France and Belgium had been used, but maybe |
| and family managed. It is by far the largest | | | | the wind on these Atlantic facing beaches was |
| sanctioning organization for stock car racing in the | | | | too erratic. |
| United States and the three chief racing series | | | | Anyway, eight successive world land speed |
| that it approves are: the Sprint Cup, the | | | | records were established in Daytona between |
| Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck | | | | 1927 and 1935. Bonneville Salt Flats, Daytona |
| Series. In fact, NASCAR sanctions more than | | | | Beach became associated with high speed cars |
| 1,500 races at more than a 100 race tracks in | | | | and also became a magnet for racers and |
| thirty-nine states. | | | | enthusiasts too. |
| For historical reasons which we will go into later, | | | | In fact, stock car racing has its roots in the |
| NASCAR's headquarters are in Florida, but its | | | | moonshine running of the Prohibition years, when |
| roots are firmly fixed in North Carolina, where it | | | | bootleggers ran their moonshine from the |
| has no fewer than four regional offices. They are | | | | Appalachians down south to the consumers. The |
| at Concord, Conover, Mooresville and Charlotte, | | | | drivers hotted up their cars to avoid the police |
| where the vast majority of NASCAR teams are | | | | and became understandably proud of them. When |
| still located. | | | | Prohibition was repealed in 1933, drivers still ran |
| A few more remarkable statistics about NASCAR | | | | the moonshine, but now it was to get out of |
| are that NASCAR is watched more often than | | | | paying duty. |
| any other sport in the United States with the sole | | | | By the late Forties, drivers of these tuned up |
| exception of professional football and it is | | | | cars were organizing races amongst themselves. |
| televised in over 150 countries world wide. | | | | They were particularly popular in the Southern |
| NASCAR also organizes seventeen of the top | | | | United States, above all in North Carolina. Bill |
| twenty attended one-day sporting events in the | | | | France Sr. was an auto mechanic who moved |
| world and its 75,000,000 devotees spend | | | | from Washington DC to Daytona to avoid the |
| $3,000,000,000 annually on licensed products. This | | | | Great Depression in 1935 and the stage was set, |
| is such an remarkable show of allegiance, that | | | | the players were in place. |