The following year (1960), superspeedways were opened just outside Atlanta and Charlotte. It took that long for NASCAR officials to study a photograph of the finish between Petty and Johnny Beauchamp before declaring Petty the winner. The first Daytona 500 didn’t end, technically, for three days. In the first race, fans were treated to something that each year still brings millions of fans to NASCAR races - close competition. With its long back straightaway and sweeping high-banked turns of more than 30 degrees, the 2.5-mile tri-oval was one of the largest speedways in the world. By the end of NASCAR’s first decade, the city not only had held on to its racing roots, but had outgrown the beach and, in 1959, moved events to Daytona International Speedway. When those looking to set land speed records began opting for the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah so the incoming and outgoing tides at Daytona Beach would not be a factor, the city wanted to maintain one of its main attractions - fast cars and the beach. began construction of a 2.5-mile, high-banked superspeedway four miles off the beach in Daytona Beach.įrance had helped lead the fight to keep racing affiliated with the city. Looking to the future, and invigorated by the success of Darlington, Bill France Sr. Names like Lee Petty, Fireball Roberts, Buck Baker, Herb Thomas, the Flock brothers, Bill Rexford, Paul Goldsmith and others became as well-known to race fans as Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider were to baseball fans.ĭaytona International Speedway ushers in a new age of speed
Characters became heroes and fans hung on every turn of the wheel, watching drivers manhandle cars at speeds fans wished they could legally run themselves.
The first decade for the premier series was one of tremendous growth. Plans were made to bring bigger, faster races to bigger, hungrier crowds and less than a year later (1950), the country’s first asphalt superspeedway, Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, opened its doors for the new division. The new racing series was off-and-running. A tremendous crowd attended the event to see race cars that looked like passenger cars compete door-to-door. Jim Roper of Great Bend, Kansas, was the winner of the first ever NASCAR Grand National event, held at the Charlotte Fairgrounds on June 19, 1949. It was 1949, however, when what is now the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, the premier racing division in America, was born. The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is born 21, 1948, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing was incorporated.
Red Byron, a stock car legend from Atlanta, won the event in a Ford Modified. 15, 1948, just two months after the organizational meeting. The first NASCAR-sanctioned race was held on Daytona’s beach-road course Feb. Not even France, who believed a sanctioning body was exactly what stock car racing needed, could have envisioned what NASCAR has become today. In fact, there were skeptics who believed it never would work. Few knew when the meeting adjourned if the organization would be successful. Thus, by the time that meeting at the Streamline Hotel was completed, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing was born. He was a man of strong will - and ambition. He operated a local service station and also promoted races on the city’s famed beach-road courses, often racing himself. In December of 1947, Bill France Sr., of Daytona Beach, Florida, organized a meeting at the Streamline Hotel, across the street from the Atlantic Ocean, to discuss the problems facing stock car racing.įrance had come to Florida from Washington, D.C., in 1935. Some could manage both, but did little to adhere to rules set by other tracks. Other tracks were more suited to handle the cars, but not the crowds. Some tracks were makeshift facilities, producing one big show at a county fair or something similar to capitalize on the crowds flocking to the events. From track to track, rules were different. Nonetheless, there was a serious lack of organization. Tracks throughout the country were drawing more drivers and bigger crowds. In the years immediately following World War II, stock car racing was experiencing the greatest popularity it had ever seen. The sport has evolved to entertain its fans and continuously prosper. NASCAR did not gain the success or popularity it has today overnight. Known for its passionate fan base, one-of-a-kind playoff format, development of the modern sports sponsorship and commitment to enhancing auto racing through technology, NASCAR produces many of the most highly attended sporting events in the world. NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races in more than 30 U.S.