NASCAR...some learning in preparation for the races!

 

First of all, who even knows what NASCAR stands for? If you guessed Nationwide Americans Staring At Cars Racing, you are wrong (…and stupid since that acronym would be NASACR).  NASCAR stands for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, founded in 1948. Stock car racing in the United States has its origins during Prohibition, when drivers ran bootleg whiskey. In order to distribute the illicit products, they typically used small, fast vehicles to evade the police. Many of the drivers would modify the cars for speed, handling, and increased cargo capacity… and some of them came to love the fast-paced driving down twisty mountain roads. The cars continued to improve, even after the removal of Prohibition (1933) and by the late 1940s, races featuring cars were being run for pride and profit. These races were popular entertainment in the rural Southern United States, especially North Carolina.

A mechanic named William France, Sr., moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, from Washington, D.C., in 1935 to escape the Great Depression. He entered the 1936 Daytona event, finished 5th and took over running the course in 1938. He believed that people really would enjoy watching these "stock cars" races, and ended up forming NASCAR on February 21, 1948. The current CEO, Brian France, is grandson of the late Bill France Sr. and the Company is still HQ’d in Daytona Beach Florida, although it’s main operation offices are all in North Carolina (Charlotte, Moorsville, Concord and Conover). 

Dale Earnhardt

Today, NASCAR is the second most viewed professional sport in terms of television ratings in the United States, only beat by professional football. Internationally, NASCAR races are broadcast in over 150 countries. It holds 17 of the top 20 attended single-day sporting events in the world, and claims 75 million fans that purchase over $3 billion in annual licensed product sales. 

...On that note, above you will find the schedule for NASCAR 2011. If you come out for the Charlotte Races on October 15th, I can guarantee, you will not be disappointed....

xx,

Alexa and Buck (who is a bicycle but wishes he were a Stock Car)