NASCAR

NASCAR, or The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a sanctioning body for motor sports in the United States. It is the single largest motor sports organization. NASCAR has enjoyed an immense surge in popularity in recent years, eclipsing the once powerful Indy Car racing that had dominated motor sports for so long. By combining down-to-earth racing styles, accessible drivers and familiar auto body styles, NASCAR has managed to bring auto racing to a level approaching the popularity of NFL Football or Major League Baseball. As far as television ratings are concerned, NASCAR auto racing is actually the second most popular sport, behind the NFL. In addition to the audience NASCAR enjoys in the United States, its races are also broadcast in over 150 countries worldwide. NASCAR fans are the most loyal fans of any sport in the U.S. going by merchandizing statistics, so much so that many Fortune 500 companies sponsor racers and events.

How NASCAR brought itself to this level of popularity is a story in itself. Amazingly, the pivotal event was a fistfight between three racers who lost the lead in the 1979 Daytona 500. The emotion and the drama brought the sport into the national consciousness faster than a simple auto race could have. With this new visibility came sponsorship, and the resulting cash infusion fueled a new marketing push to bring more of the sport to the television audience.

Before 1979, the television coverage of NASCAR events was sporadic at best. With the exception of the Daytona 500, most NASCAR events were not broadcast and competition from the INDY car circuit was much heavier. The Indianapolis 500 actually gathered a larger television audience.

In the beginning of the 20th century, Daytona Beach was known by racing enthusiasts as a place for setting land speed records. Before the speed record scene moved to the Bonneville Salt Flats, Daytona was the venue of choice. Fifteen speed records were set in Daytona between 1905 and 1935. After the heyday of speed racing, Daytona began to host race events.

The early days of racing were rather humble, with most drivers moonlighting as drivers for bootleggers. Moonshine runners would modify their vehicles to make them faster than the police cars that were chasing them, resulting in some rather ironic improvements in auto racing and automobiles in general. Once prohibition was ended, the natural choice for many of these drivers, who had developed quite a taste for speed.

In 1935 a mechanic by the name of William France Sr. moved to Daytona Beach to escape the Depression. Having followed the events in Daytona, he entered the 1936 Daytona race and finished fifth. By 1938 he was in charge of running the course. It occurred to France that people might enjoy watching the event, so he began to organize the racers. In the early days racers were frequently the victims of unscrupulous racing promoters. In 1947 in early December he organized talks between racers and promoters. These talks eventually became the sanctioning organization that is NASCAR, with standardized rules, a regular schedule and a championship.

The first NASCAR stock race was held at Charlotte Speedway in 1949. The cars were strictly stock, with no modifications from the factory. After a number of years, however, modifications for safety and performance were allowed. Eventually the cars became high performance cars that merely looked like stock cars.

In the 1970's, NASCAR underwent a major shift in structure and format. With the banishment of tobacco advertising from television, tobacco companies were looking for new ways to market their products and turned to sponsorship. In 1971The Winston Cup, sponsored by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company became the top motor sports event. A new points system was implemented and cash awards for championship points were initiated.

The Daytona 500 became the first nationally televised stock car event, with the race broadcast from start to finish. It was a tightly run race, with the leaders going head to head almost from the start of the race. In the final lap, Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough tangled up and crashed while fighting for the lead and Richard Petty passed them for the win. What ensued next made NASCAR history and launched the sport into the national consciousness. Allison and Yarborough turned on each other, throwing punches on national television. Donnie's brother Bobbie jumped into the fray. The fight caught the imagination of the nation. The drama and passion they brought to the sport translated into viewers for NASCAR. It didn't hurt that the US eastern states were stranded at home due to a major snowstorm.

The other major change that had a major influence on the sport was the new points system. Until that time, drivers were merely concerned with winning each race. Now they were bent on winning points and increasing their standings.

The point structure for all NACAR series races are based on final position and laps led. For laps led, there are three different scales. Racers who finish first receive 180 points, second place gets 170. After second, the next scale is from third to sixth, with points diminishing by 5 each position. Racers who finish seventh through eleventh receive 4 points less per position. After that, the points for position diminish by 3 points per position all the way to the last place finisher. For this reason, even drivers who wreck their cars will often return to the track to finish, even with no chance of winning. If they can move up three positions they can gain 9 points.

For laps led, a driver can earn 5 points by leading the race for a lap once. The driver who leads the most laps earns 5 points for a total of 10 points. The leader of each lap is determined at the finish line. Drivers must cross the finish line in each lap first to be considered the leader of that lap. It is possible for a driver to lead nearly the entire lap and not cross the finish line first, therefore gaining no points. Conversely, a driver can be behind the leader for most of the lap and still get the point for crossing first.

The points gained are awarded to the driver who started the race. It is possible for racing teams to swap drivers, but the points are awarded to the starting driver, not his substitute. Points are also awarded to the owners of the car. Owners receive the same points as the drivers if their cars qualify. If their car fails to qualify, the owner still receives points based on how well they qualified.

There are six major NASCAR sanctioned series': the Nextel Cup Series, the Busch Series, the Craftsman Truck Series, the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, the NASCAR Regional Racing and the Dodge Weekly Series. Each series runs races on a particular set of tracks, each with its own special attributes, making each race unique and offering pluses and minuses depending upon each driver's style and abilities.

The single most important event in the NASCAR season is the Nextel Cup Series. In 2003, after R.J. Reynolds dropped its sponsorship of the major racing events, Nextel took up the mantle to become the sponsor for the single most important event in NASCAR racing. However, because of the pending merger between Nextel and Sprint, the Cup is set to change names in 2007 to the Sprint Cup.

The Busch Series, sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, is the second highest level of NASCAR racing competition. There are slight differences in the cars and the season is slightly shorter than the Nextel Cup. The prize money is correspondingly lower as well. Some drivers consider the Busch Series good practice for the Nextel Cup races.

After the Busch Series, the next level of competition is the Craftsman Truck Series. As the name implies, the race features modified pickup trucks. Formed in 1995, the Craftsman Series was considered something of a novelty at first. Eventually popularity grew enough for the series to feel 'respectable'.

The Canadian Tire Series, often referred to as CASCAR is the fourth series in the NASCAR crown. NASCAR acquired the Canadian racing series in September of 2006 and will begin racing the series in 2007. It will replace CASCAR's Super Series.

The two remaining sup series': NASCAR regional racing and the Dodge Weekly Series are local events that are held throughout the United States and Canada. Drivers compete, based on a formula, to win the Dodge Weekly Series National Championship, among other titles.

Over the years, NASCAR has been heavily criticized for its lack of attention to safety, but with the death of major drivers, in particular, Dale Earnhardt in 2001, NASCAR has stepped up to the plate in this area. In the past, most safety precautions were completely voluntary and many drivers simply didn't include them for financial reasons, or simply because some safety measures are cumbersome or inhibit driver movement and such.

Seats and seat harnesses have evolved greatly over the years. The seat has been modified over the years to spread the load of an impact over the length and breadth of the ribcage, rather than allowing it to be concentrated in one area. The seats have also been redesigned to wrap around the driver more, to redirect the pressures of impact to the shoulders, which are sturdier. Harnesses have been altered to have five and six points, with straps over the shoulders, around the waist and between the legs.

Another change in the safety rules was put in place for races on certain tracks is the restrictor plate. Placed between the manifold and the carburetor, the restrictor plate reduces the air and fuel flow, reducing power. Restrictor plates are used only in Daytona and Talladega, reducing the average speed of the vehicles to below 200. As a result, some tracks that do not require a restrictor plates record higher track speeds.

In 1994, NASCAR required roof flaps in their race cars. These are designed to prevent vehicles from getting airborne and flipping. If a car spins backwards, there is sufficient lift to pick the car up. The flaps are built into the roof of the cars, and when a car spins, they flip up, disrupting airflow and preventing the car from lifting and flipping.

Starting in 2000, tracks began to install soft barriers between the track and the concrete walls separating the cars from the audience. Many of the major injuries associated with crashes came from striking the wall. Barriers made of Styrofoam sandwiched between steel were installed to absorb the impact of a car striking the wall at high speed. Some tracks use a decidedly low-tech approach to this by sandwiching tires between the wall and a steel barrier.

Perhaps one of the biggest advancements in NASCAR had little to do with the tracks or the races, but with the racers themselves. The growth of drivers as celebrities helped fuel a racing Renaissance for NASCAR, with names such as Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart becoming household names. While car racing, particularly stock car racing, had always enjoyed a large audience in the southeast United States, the elevation of drivers to celebrity status propelled the sport into the national consciousness.

This elevation of drivers and the increased popularity of the sport brought with it new sponsorships and more money to the industry, adding fuel to the marketing fire. Drivers now became regular figures in television commercials, and not just for auto parts as had been the case in the past, but for everyday items like snack foods, computers and home improvement stores. There are even pharmaceutical company sponsors fro some vehicles, most notably and perhaps infamously, the male enhancement drug, Viagra.

One major influence on the sport and its image was the Tom Cruise film, Days of Thunder. The visibility and popularity of motor sports, NASCAR in particular, was raised to the next level by the box office draw and star power of Cruise and his costar, Nicole Kidman.

The trend may have reached its pinnacle in the 2006 film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. While considered a parody of the sport and the perceived dimness of NASCAR drivers and fans, the film offered a rather friendly sweetness at the same time it was lampooning NASCAR.

There are many critics of the sport of auto racing, and NASCAR in general. One of the main criticisms is that oval track racing is a relatively talentless venture with drivers "making left turns for 500 miles". Proponents of the sport point to the intense strategy required to win a race. With most cars modified to the utmost allowed by the sport, and restrictor plates added to some races, the sport must then be mostly strategy and driving skills. Fuel consumption and tire rotation play a large part of that strategy. When to head into the pits for maintenance, refueling and tire replacement play a key role in keeping drivers in a position to keep the lead and ultimately win.

One strategy much discussed is the "art" of drafting. Drafting involves keeping the car in the slipstream of a car before it, reducing drag and friction and therefore conserving fuel. Slipping out of this slipstream can give a car a boost of speed, called "slingshotting", propelling the car forward past the car it had trailed. Drivers often work in teams, helping each other conserve fuel and move forward in position by suing both slipstreaming and slingshotting amongst themselves. Often a driver will sacrifice his own standing in position to help a team mate move forward and possibly take the checkered flag.

Another criticism of the sport is more fundamental: that the motor sports industry is essentially an exercise in testosterone burn as well as fossil fuels. There are no real figures on the emissions produced by a NASCAR event like the Daytona 500 and the cars have no catalytic converters, mufflers or other emission control devices. While some smaller tracks require mufflers due to local noise restrictions, many do not. The consumption of fuel, especially during fuel shortages has also been a sore spot for detractors of the sport as well. It is admittedly difficult to justify the burning of such large amounts of fuel when there is a shortage.

NASCAR looks to continue its reign as the King of motor sports, at least in the United States. Indy Racing has made attempts to bring its sport back into the spotlight, trying to ride on the popularity of NASCAR, but with most of the drivers and the majority of the money in NASCAR, it is an uphill battle.

In much of the rest of the world, Rally racing, touring and other road racing formats are certainly much more popular than stock car racing. LeMans racing commands a higher percentage of the television audience throughout Europe. NASCAR will certainly continue to make attempts to export their sport to other countries, but like American football versus soccer, it may be a losing battle.