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C enturies following the times of ancient Rome, the four- horsepower chariots are no longer the fastest set of wheels in town. The illustrious Ben Hurr would be proud of the racing machines of today. Motor sports have a long history of fortification. Comptrolling organizations, immense speedways, eminent drivers, and unique automobiles paved this history. Behold the history of NASCAR, the NHRA, drag racing, muscle cars, and the Muscle Car Era. The idea of racing cars as a spectator sport was an advertising idea of Henry Ford’s. Ford developed a team of racecar drivers to race his Model T, drivers that would eventually be great names to motor sports; drivers such as Ed Winfield, Harry Miller, and Pierre Bertrand. The competitive driving style made Model T owners want their car to be as fast as the race cars they watched on race day. As a response to this demand Ford began to manufacture high performance aftermarket parts for Model T roadsters. (Bakerville http://www.hotrod.com/thehistoryof/42646/) Model T racing became so popular that small racing circuits started forming and all types of automobiles were raced. The racing of stock automobiles became known as stock car racing and some financiers started funding stock car racing events. One of these financiers was Bill France. A former driver and mechanic that towered to six feet seven inches tall, he promoted stock car events in the Daytona, Florida are and throughout the southeast upon moving to the area in the 1930’s. Bill France forefelt the success of stock car racing if it was sanctioned by a reputable organization. Consequent to intuition thirty-five men assembled on top of the Daytona Beach Hotel in December of 1947; these thirty-five men consisted of businessmen, moon shiners, racecar drivers, promoters, and mechanics. Some of the mechanics were so authentic that they still had grease on their hands. They organized a stock car racing organization that would combine the entire array of small independent racing organizations that tried to claim superiority over each other, each also had their own national champion. The men formed a new organization under Bill France that set the rules and standards of stock car racing. Now, the infant organization needed a name; some considered were National Championship Stock Car Circuit and National Stock Car Racing Association. These were not satisfying though. Red Vogt suggested National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. NASCAR was adopted as the name of the new stock car racing organization. The first NASCAR race was held on Daytona Beach six days before the official papers were finalized. Robert ‘Red’ Byron in Raymond Parks’, 1939, Ford won that event. The beach race was the first of fifty-two events that were run that inaugural season. In 1948, a circuit for new cars, postwar models, was planned but never materialized; cars were excessively scarce. Availability increased and by 1949, cars were flowing into dealerships. NASCAR tried the idea again, first as part of sub-event in southern Florida. The event was moderately successful so France made plans for a “strictly stock” race the spring on the three-quarter mile dirt oval in Charlotte, N.C. The response to the strictly stock race was immediate; fans flocked to the track. The race had a thirty-three-car field that included a female driver, Sarah Christian; she started thirteenth in her husband’s Ford. Jim Roper won the first “strictly stock” event and Glen Dunnaway became the circuit’s first disqualification because his Ford was found to have altered rear springs in the post race inspection. (Carlton 27, 28) Quickly seven more events were scheduled. In 1950, the circuit grew and was named the NASCAR Grand National Series. That season the circuit held it’s first race on a paved track and tried their first five hundred mile race. No one was sure if a stock car could last five hundred miles so seventy-five cars were allowed to try. Both occurred at Darlington Superspeedway in Darlington, S.C. on the first Monday of September. The circuit grew to a high of sixty-two races in 1964 and other immense tracks were built to host the events. In 1959, Daytona’s two and a half mile superspeedway opened and joined the next season beside mile and a half facilities in Charlotte, N.C. and Atlanta, G.A. Rockingham, N.C. joined in 1965. And in 1969, Dover Raceway, Michigan International Speedway, and Talladega Superspeedway; Talladega Is an amazing 2.66 miles long and has thirty-three degree banking. A national fuel shortage threatened to halt NASCAR racing until France shortened all races by ten percent and had a study don’t that proved auto racing in America used less fuel than most other sports.
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