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Tuesday 16 August 2016

NASCAR

NASCAR is an acronym which stands for "National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing." It is the governing body of stock car racing in the United States.

NASCAR was founded on February 21, 1948 by Bill France Sr. and several other race car drivers. Originally there were three divisions. Modifieds, Roadsters and Strictly Stock.


The first race in the "strictly stock" division was held on June 19, 1949 at a three-quarter mile dirt track called Charlotte Speedway. Jim Roper won that very first race. This division grew to become the Sprint Cup series.

Country and Western star Marty Robbins loved NASCAR racing, which his musical successes enabled him to finance.  In the 1972 Talladega 500, his laps were 15mph faster than his qualifying time. After the race, he turned down the Rookie of the Race award and admitted that he removed the carb restrictor "to see what it was like to run up front for once."

In May 1987 NASCAR driver Bobby Allison was involved in an accident at the Talladega Superspeedway. The impact, at over 200 miles per hour (320 km/h), tore out over 100 yards of fencing. Parts and pieces of the car went flying into the grandstand injuring several spectators. This lead NASCAR to develop restrictor plate racing the following season at Daytona and Talladega to keep speeds under 200 miles per hour (320 km/h).

Ricky Craven won the 2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington Raceway on March 16, 2003, by beating Kurt Busch in a photo finish. The margin of victory was officially recorded as .002 seconds, which is the closest finish in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series.

The final lap of the race was a thrilling back-and-forth battle between Craven and Busch, with both drivers trading paint as they jostled for the lead. Coming out of the final turn, the two cars were side-by-side, with Craven on the inside and Busch on the outside. They crossed the finish line in a blur, with Craven edging out Busch by the narrowest of margins. The finish was so close that it took several minutes for officials to review the video footage and declare Craven the winner. 


The biggest Sprint Cup race of the year is the Daytona 500 which is the very first race of the year.

Danica Patrick's eighth place in the 2013 Daytona 500 was the first top-10 finish achieved by a woman in the Daytona 500.

The start of the 2015 Daytona 500

The NASCAR Sprint Cup series features 36 races on 22 different race tracks. 34 of those races feature all left turns on ovals or D shaped race tracks. Two races are held on road courses.

The tracks vary in size from the massive 2.66 mile Talladega Superspeedway down to the tiny .526 mile Martinsville Speedway.

You don't need a driver's license to be a NASCAR driver.

Being a NASCAR pit crew member is so physically demanding that today instead of giving mechanics physical training, they take athletes and give them auto mechanic training.

Source About.com

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