NASCAR History
1. The founder of the NASCAR was a man with the name of Bill France Sr.
2. In December of 1947 Bill France Sr. held a meeting to discuss the
problems facing NASCAR Racing.
3. The first NASCAR sanctioned race was held on Daytona Beach’s course
Feb. 15, 1948
4. The first race on asphalt was June 19, 1949, at the Charlotte Fairgrounds. The
race was won by Jim Roper. Many people attended the event.
5. The first Super speedway Track was Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.
6. In the first Decade of NASCAR racing grew tremendously. Fans came just to
see cars race door-to-door.
7. Many drivers became famous like Lee Petty, Buck Baker, Herb Thomas and
Bill Rexford.
8. As NASCAR began to catch the eyes of many people, Bill France Sr. wanted
to have bigger events so he started on a new track 4 miles off Daytona Beach.
9. At the end of the first ten years of NASCAR people still enjoyed it even
though they raced on new surfaces like Daytona International Speedway.
10. Fan interest grew a bunch. People wanted bigger races and tracks, so
France opened a 2.66 mile track called Talladega Superspeedway.
11. In the 1970’s brought further change, including one at the top when Bill
France Sr., passed the leadership of NASCAR to his son Bill Jr.
12. In 1976, the NASCAR division took the Motorsports record for the most
spectators with 1.4 million people at a single event.
13. Television exposure grew too. The 1979 Daytona 500 wax the first 500-mile
race to be televised in its entirety.
14. By the mid 1980’s, Fortune 500 companies not only involved in sponsoring
NASCAR, but individual teams as well.
15. In 1981 NASCAR moved its award ceremony to New York from Daytona
Beach.
16. New People such as Darrel Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt and Bill Elliot became the
Richard Petty and Davey Allison’s of NASCAR.
17. In 1992, NASCAR consolidated the Late Model Sportsman Division which,
was later sponsored by Anheuser-Busch Inc. making it the Busch series.
18. When the 1990’s began, no one but the sports visionaries could imagine
growth NASCAR would undertake.
19. NASCAR began its biggest growth when the New Hampshire Motor
Speedway was built.
20. NASCAR celebrated its 50th anniversary in the 1998 season.
21. From 1993 to 1998, the Cup series at-track attendance grew 57%. (2.2 Million)
22. In 1989, NASCAR became so popular all scheduled events were televised.
23. In November 2000,, Mike Helton became the 3rd President in NASCAR
history as the torch of leadership passed to a non-France family member for
the first time.
24. By the Turn of the Century, nothing could stand in the way of NASCAR’s
raging success. New drivers such as Jeff Gordon and Bobby Labonte
emerged.
25. The TV exposing gained NASCAR a 48% increases in viewers. (More than 6
million)
26. In 2002 NASCAR started to notice some “Young Guns” like Jimmie Johnson
and Kurt Busch arise.
27. In 2003, NASCAR made the announcement that Nextel would be the of the
Cup series.
28. NASCAR named Brain Z. France CEO and Chairmen of the series.
29. In 2006, many car makers deiced to move to every NASCAR series
30. In addition, to all the changes the Busch series was replaced with a new
sponsor, Nationwide Insurance.