NASCAR Then and Now - Ben White [0]
BEN WHITE
Contemporary images by NIGEL KINRADE
Historical images by SMYLE MEDIA
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Drivers and Teams
Chapter 2: Fans
Chapter 3: Horsepower
Chapter 4: The Tracks
Chapter 5: Setting the Stage
Chapter 6: Let’s Go Racin’!
Index
Introduction
Although stock car racing had become popular in various parts of the United States by the end of World War II, it was Bill France who officially organized it into a legitimate sport in the late 1940s. The part-time race driver from Washington, D.C., felt that if one set of rules could be honored across the country the sport could be built into something respected by all.
In December 1947, France held a three-day meeting to discuss the future of stock car racing. Attendees included promoters, businessmen, lawyers, mechanics, motorcycle racers, and even a turnip farmer. Each wrote suggestions on napkins as to how the sport should be structured. On Feb. 21, 1948, the proper papers of incorporation were put into place, and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing—NASCAR—was born.
Running under primitive rules that left plenty of room for creativity, the first NASCAR season featured cars referred to as “modifieds” competing in 52 exciting races around the southeast. Atlanta native Red Byron was crowned NASCAR’s first modified champion.
Carrying the momentum of 1948’s success, France looked to do something even better the next season. His goal was to create a sport that would truly resonate with fans: What better way to do that than by racing the same cars that fans could buy and own themselves? On June 19, 1949, NASCAR’s Strictly Stock division made its debut in Charlotte, North Carolina. Thirteen thousand in attendance watched showroom Fords, Cadillacs, Dodges, and Buicks battle it out on a three-quarter-mile dirt track, with Kansas native Jim Roper taking the winner’s trophy in a Cadillac. (Flagged winner Glenn Dunnaway had his 1947 Ford disqualified for being equipped with non-stock leaf-style rear springs. This would not be the last time in NASCAR history that a race result would be overturned after technical inspection.) After eight races in 1949, Byron was crowned NASCAR’s first Strictly Stock champion. This was the series that later became known as Grand National, then Winston Cup, and now the Sprint Cup division.
Harold Brasington (left) and Bill France Sr. (second from right) review plans during the construction of Darlington Raceway in 1950.
NASCAR’s dirt track roots: A late-1940s modified race.
Bill Elliott (back row, center, in red fire suit) won the Winston Million the first year it was offered, forever earning the nickname “Million-Dollar Bill”
One year later, NASCAR was ushered into the superspeedway era when Harold Brasington built a 1.366-mile-long asphalt oval known as Darlington Raceway. The inaugural 1950 Southern 500, won by Johnny Mantz in a Plymouth, proved that stock cars could hold up in the Labor Day heat, even though tires were so poor that pit crews ran out of race rubber and had to resort to taking tires off of passenger cars parked in the infield to finish the race.
In addition to Darlington, France continued to sanction races at short tracks across the country. His most prestigious event was held on what was known as the Beach and Road Course, a stretch of Highway A1A that joined the sands of Daytona Beach to form a makeshift oval 4.150 miles long.
In 1959, France opened the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway. This was followed by more superspeedways throughout the 1960s, including Atlanta; Charlotte and Rockingham, North Carolina; Dover, Delaware; and Brooklyn, Michigan.
Stars of that era, such as Bobby Allison, Buddy Baker, Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough, and David Pearson helped build the sport through their popularity with the fans and from the headlines they generated throughout the 1970s.
But NASCAR’s biggest turning point came in 1971 when R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR) stepped in as the Grand National series title sponsor, renaming NASCAR’s top division