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NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is the largest sanctioning body of motorsports in the United States. The three largest racing series sanctioned by NASCAR are the NEXTEL Cup, the Busch Series and the Craftsman Truck Series. more...
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It also oversees NASCAR Regional Racing, the Whelen Modified Tour, and the Dodge Weekly Series. NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 38 states, Canada, and Mexico. From 1996 to 1998, NASCAR held exhibition races in Japan, and an exhibition race in Australia in 1988.
With roots as regional entertainment in the Southeastern U.S., NASCAR has grown to become the second most popular professional sport in terms of television ratings inside the U.S., ranking behind only the National Football League. Internationally, NASCAR races are broadcast in over 150 countries. It holds 17 of the top 20 attended sporting events in the U.S.1, and has 75 million fans who purchase over $2 billion in annual licensed product sales. These fans are considered the most brand-loyal in all of sports, and as a result, Fortune 500 companies sponsor NASCAR more than any other sport.
NASCAR's headquarters are located in Daytona Beach, FL, although it also maintains offices in four North Carolina cities: Charlotte, Mooresville, Concord and Conover as well as New York City, Los Angeles, Arkansas, and international offices in Mexico City, and Toronto, Ontario. NASCAR and the Universal Technical Institute (UTI) cooperated and opened a technical school in North Carolina called NASCAR Technical Institute, where aspiring students train to be NASCAR mechanics.
History
Early stock car racing
In the first decade of the 1900s, Daytona Beach became known as the place to set world land speed records. The beach became a mecca for racing enthusiasts. Fifteen records were set at the beach between 1905 and 1935, when the Bonneville Salt Flats became the premiere place to host land speed record attempts. In 1936 the course began hosting car racing events. Drivers raced a 1.5 to 2 mile stretch of beach as one straightaway, and beachfront highway A1A as the other.
Early race drivers were often involved in bootlegging. Some accounts say that they all were. That is how (at least most of them) afforded the fastest and therefore most expensive machines--with their excessive moonshine profits. They ran moonshine down the twisty mountain roads to people during alcohol prohibition. The runners would modify their cars in order to create a faster, more maneuverable vehicle to evade the police, and came to love the fast paced driving. One of the main 'strips' in Knoxville, TN had its beginning as a mecca for aspiring bootlegging drivers. When the U.S. alcohol prohibition was lifted in 1933, the owners of these first "racecars" watched their profitable businesses dry up. Since they had no reason to use them for "runnin' shine" anymore and found themselves with time on their hands and a lot of money, many wanted to race their cars for pride and money. These races were popular entertainment in the rural Southern United States, and they are most closely associated with the Wilkes County region of North Carolina. Most races in those days were of modified cars, street vehicles which were lightened and reinforced.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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