| Every year the number of people who come as audience for the NASCAR races keep multiplying. From its seeds in the hills of Carolinas and Virginia, to the 20th century, there have been many changes in the NASCAR racers, but what is the origin of this famous car race?
Does the name of Bill France Sr. & Bill France Jr. ring any bells? Bill France Jr. is the son of NASCAR founder the senior Bill France. The sport wouldn’t exist without France Sr. initiatives and would not be what it is today without France Jr. s vision and drive to make it what it is now. Both had deep love of motor sports and had the strength, drive and determination to make their visions a reality.
In 1930’s, Bill France Sr. was employed as a mechanic. He had his very own garage close to Washington, DC. During his leisure time he was racing the home dirt track circuit. In 1963 after he had moved to Daytona Beach, Bill France Sr. took part in the home racing scene and completed fifth in the first race. Continuing this success, in just a few years he was requested to manage the races as a promoter. Thou he was not willing in the beginning, as he couldn’t find a person to hand it over to, he agreed.
While continuing promoting races at the Daytona Beach Race course, Bill was also getting disturbed with the dishonest race promoters that kept promising amounts to the racers, and vanished with the pay. Bill started to think that driver can earn more cash and also have better races only if there was a general set of rules and a strong authorizing body to behind them.
With this aim, in December 1947, Bill France Sr. brought together a group of officials, drivers and race promoters and at Daytona Beach in the Streamline Hotel, held a discussion about the idea. A sequence of discussion were held on this idea and finally on the 21st of February 1948, NASCAR was born.
The first Sprint Cup Race of NASCAR was held on June 19th 1949. This event was organized as the ‘strictly stock’ series event which eventually went on to be the Sprint Cup Series. The race was held at Charlotte Speedway, which is a ¾ mile dirt track in Charlotte. ‘Glenn Dunnaway’ was the first to cross the finish line in the first race, but was disqualified for prohibited rear shocks. Thus ‘Jim Roper’ was rewarded the first place, with a cash prize of $2,000.
This was the birth of NASCAR. The greatest racing sport from birth to now. |
