HISTORY OF NASCAR


Richard, who soon would be referred to as “The King” of stock car racing, Buddy Baker, Cale Yarborough, Ned Jarrett, David Pearson and Bobby Allison led NASCAR racing through an era that featured a schedule of more than 60 races a year on tracks from Florida to California to Maine. Fan interest grew and the demand for


bigger, faster tracks was heard. In 1969, France opened the 2.66-mile Alabama In- ternational Motor Speedway (now known as Talladega Superspeedway), the largest and fastest motorsports oval in the world. New tracks sprang up in Brooklyn, Mich., (70 miles southwest of Detroit), Dover, Del., (between Philadelphia and Balti- more) and Pocono, Pa., two hours from Manhattan. The decade of the 1970s brought fur-


ther change, including one at the top when Bill France Sr., passed the torch of leadership of NASCAR to his son Bill Jr. on Jan. 10, 1972. Corporate sponsorship by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company through its Winston brand began in 1971 and NASCAR’s premier division was then known as the NASCAR Winston Cup. In 1976, NASCAR’s premier division


took the lead in worldwide motorsports at- tendance for the first time with more than 1.4 million spectators making their way to events, according to figures from the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. That lead never has been relinquished. Television exposure grew as well. The


1979 Daytona 500 became the first 500- mile race in history to be telecast live in its entirety. In 1981, NASCAR moved its an- nual awards ceremony to New York City from Daytona Beach for the first time. By the mid 1980s, Fortune 500 compa-


nies not only were involved in sponsoring NASCAR, but individual races and teams as well. Drivers such as Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott and others were rising to challenge Petty and Allison and Yarbor- ough and displaying the colors of deter- gents and coffees and cereals on the hoods of their cars while doing it. Major consumer packaging companies


like Kellogg’s, General Foods, and Procter & Gamble were realizing what Bill France saw coming in the late 1940s – stock car racing was big. In 1982, NASCAR consolidated the Late


Model Sportsman Division into a new se- ries. Since rising costs had made weekly racing for the Late Model stock cars diffi-


A ‘Strictly Stock’ race at the Charlotte (NC) Fairgrounds, in 1949, was a clear indication of the popularity of stock car racing. PHOTO COURTESY OF NASCAR


cult, the idea behind the creation of the series was to build big races, and to bring all of the regional-stars of the series to- gether for all of the races. Anheuser-Busch, Inc. of St. Louis, Mo.,


became the sponsor of the new NASCAR Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series. In 1984, the Busch brand took over the sponsorship in what would become the NASCAR Busch Series – now called the NASCAR Nationwide Series. By 1989, just ten years after the first 500-mile race to be broadcast live flag-to- flag, every race on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule was televised, nearly all live. Close competition and high speeds in


cars that have a “stock” appearance have been the hallmark of the NASCAR’s top di- vision through the years. As the decade of the 1990s began, per-


haps no one but the sports visionaries could have imagined the growth NASCAR would undertake. Without question it was an exciting time. NASCAR began its mete- oric rise by expansion in 1993 to New Hampshire Motor Speedway – 70 miles north of Boston – and in 1994, to the capi- tal of open-wheel racing, Indianapolis. In May 1994, NASCAR introduced a


new series, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, involving full-bodied pickup trucks. After several exhibition events, the first points event in the new series was held in February of 1995. The intensely competi- tive series has grown in popularity and starts 2009 with a new sponsor and name: the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. At the same time, NASCAR’s at-track at- tendance grew monumentally. The NASCAR “lifestyle” was becoming a na- tional phenomenon with cover stories in Forbes and Sports Illustrated. To help feed the tremendous growth, NASCAR launched its official Web site in


1995 (www.nascar.com) and in 1997, NASCAR branched out again, adding races in top 10 markets like Los Angeles, Dal- las/Ft. Worth and added a second date in New Hampshire. The 1998 season marked the celebra-


tion of NASCAR’s 50th Anniversary with an unprecedented integrated marketing cam- paign to celebrate NASCAR’s past, present and future. NASCAR’s top division ex- panded once again to Las Vegas while the NASCAR Nationwide Series expanded to Pikes Peak International Raceway in Col- orado, and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series included new races at St. Louis, Memphis, and Pikes Peak. From 1993 to 1998, NASCAR Sprint


Cup Series at-track attendance alone grew 57% (by 2.2 million) to over 6.3 million and its top three divisions combined grew a staggering 80% (by 4.1 million), to over 9.3 million. Topping off NASCAR’s explosion in the


‘90s was the announcement in November 1999 of a consolidated television package with Fox Sports/FX and NBC Sports/TNT for NASCAR’s premier division and NASCAR Nationwide Series beginning in 2001. At the same time, DaimlerChrysler announced intentions to return its Dodge nameplate to NASCAR’s top division for 2001, after a 15-year hiatus. As the sports fan base grew, NASCAR


grew internally as well. In November of 2000, Mike Helton became the third presi- dent in NASCAR history as the torch of leadership passed to a non-France family member for the first time. By the turn of the century, nothing could


stand in the way of NASCAR’s raging suc- cess. New stars emerged such as Jeff Gor- don, Bobby Labonte and second-generation driver Dale Jarrett. NASCAR’s drivers, teams and tracks once


WWW.NASCAR.CA • 57


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