NASCAR For Beginners

NASCAR began in the 1940's when men called "ridge-runners" smuggled whiskey from stills throughout Appalachia to speakeasies in the Piedmont of North and South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia in their own cars, which were adapted for high speeds, storage capacity, and concealment from law enforcement.

These ridge-runners would sometimes meet to show off their special cars and prove whose car was the fastest. This occasional gathering of ridge-runners grew into regular races, with the winner taking home bragging rights and extra spending cash. By the mid-1940's, these occasional races grew into regular Friday and Saturday Night races that drew hundreds of spectators.

In 1948, Bill France, Sr. founded the first organization designed to bring structure and professionalism to these events. With the chosen name of the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, NASCAR was born.

Over the next fifty years, especially in the 1970's and 80's, NASCAR built its success around southern heritage, a host of colorful driving personalities, and two major racing series, the Busch Grand National Series and the Winston Cup Series. It also organized smaller series that developed future drivers and kept local interest between major Series races.

NASCAR was a pioneer from its earliest days in the open acceptance of visible corporate participation, sponsorship, and advertising in its races. This sponsorship activity ranges currently from cars and drivers to individual races and entire racing series.

By the late 1990's, NASCAR had achieved an important and well-earned place in the fabric of Southern American culture as the only major sport that was totally indigenous to the region. As more people moved to and from the South in the 1980's and 1990's, NASCAR attracted new fans not only in the South but also in other parts of the nation. NASCAR started a new major racing series, the Crafstman Truck Series in 1995.

With NASCAR leadership passing to Brian France, NASCAR made changes to its sponsorship and competitive structure and race schedule to encourage and develop a truly national and international, family-friendly fan base. In 2004, NASCAR changed sponsorship for its flagship racing series from Winston to Nextel. NASCAR introduced the Chase for the Championship, a "playoff" system to encourage excitement at season's end. NASCAR ran its first international Busch Grand National Race in Mexico City in 2005. NASCAR begins a Canadian series in 2007.

There are three key steps to a NASCAR race in each major series, usually occurring over three days.

The first step is to qualify. Qualifying consists of running three laps around the track. Times are kept on the last two laps. Drivers are given their starting positions in order of average speed over the two timed laps. There are normally 43 spots in each race. The prized spot is the Pole Position, which is the inside position on row #1 and is given to the driver with the best qualifying time. A driver may receive a starting position, even if he/she didn't qualify by speed in certain occasions.

The second step is practice. During practice, drivers drive the course to get a feel for it before they go under race conditions. There are strict rules governing what can be done to a car between qualifying and the race.

The third step is the race. After receiving a starting position, drivers line up their cars in the pit area in order and receive the command to "start your engines". The drivers then pull out and circle the track behind a specially designated pace car until the green flag is waved, signalling the start of the race. Drivers then race around the track, trying to gain the front position at top speed. If a dangerous situation occurs (wreck, debris, safety hazard), a yellow flag is waved, which freezes all positions and reduces speed until safe conditions return. Passing is not allowed during a caution period. If circumstances are so severe that the race needs to be suspended momentarily, a red flag waves. If a driver commits a serious offense, a black flag waves, requiring that driver to leave the track.

A white flag waves when there is one lap remaining. After that lap, a black/white checkered flag is waved, signalling the race's end. One attempt is made to extend the race if it is under a yellow caution flag at the end. The goal is to end the race under green-white-checkered conditions. If this fails, the race can end under a caution flag.

Drivers can make a "pit stop" to receive service on their car at almost any point in the race. Pit stops are tightly regulated by NASCAR officials. Good drivers minimize their number of pit stops and the elapsed time of these stops. Short, effective pit stops are quite often the key difference between a competitor and a winner.

The winner takes a victory lap and then drives to Winner's Circle, where they receive the crowd's praise and the Winner's Trophy and other honors.