Stock Car Racing

Stock Car Racing

Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing found mainly in the United States and Great Britain held largely on oval rings of between approximately ½ mile and 2.66 miles (about 0.8 to 4.2 kilometres) in length, but also raced occasionally on road courses. Ovals shorter than one mile (1.6 km) are called short tracks; unpaved short tracks are called dirt tracks; longer ovals are typically known as superspeedways. Top level races are generally 200 to 600 miles (300-1000 km) in length. Average speeds in the top classes are around 160 mph (275.5 km/h), compared to 220 mph (354 km/h) in comparable levels of open wheel racing. Some NASCAR races can get up to speeds of 200 mph at tracks such as the Daytona International Speedway and the Talladega Superspeedway.

A stock car, in the original sense of the term, is an automobile that has not been modified from its original factory configuration. Later the term stock car came to mean any production-based automobile used in racing. This term was used to differentiate such a car from a race car, a special, custom-built car designed only for racing purposes with no intent of its ever being used as regular transportation.

When NASCAR was first formed by Bill France Sr. in 1948 to regulate stock car racing, there was a requirement that any car entered be made entirely of parts available to the general public through automobile dealers, and that all cars must be from a model run of which at least 500 cars of that model were sold to the general public. This is referred to as "homologation". In NASCAR's early years, the cars were so "stock" that it was commonplace for the drivers to drive themselves to the competitions in the car that they were going to run in the race. While automobile engine technology had remained fairly stagnant in WWII, advanced aircraft piston engine developement had provided a great deal of available data, and NASCAR was formed just as some the improved technology was about to become available in production cars. Until the advent of the Trans-Am series in 1967, NASCAR homologation cars were the closest thing the public could buy that was actually very similar to the cars that were winning the national races.

Stock car series

The most prominent championship in stock car racing is the NASCAR championship, currently called the Nextel Cup after its sponsor (formerly known as Winston Cup after a previous sponsor). It is the most popular racing series in the United States, drawing over 6 million spectators in 1997, an average live audience of over 190,000 people for each race. The most famous event in the series is undoubtedly the Daytona 500, an annual 500-mile race at Daytona Beach, Florida. The series' second-biggest event is probably The Brickyard 400, an annual 400-mile race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the legendary home of the Indianapolis 500 of the Indy Racing League, an open-wheeled racing series. NASCAR also runs the Busch Series, a stock car junior league, and the Craftsman Truck Series, a junior league where pickup trucks are raced. Together the two car-based series (Nextel Cup and Busch Series) drew 8 million spectators in 1997, compared to 4 million for both American open-wheel series (CART and IRL). In 2002, 17 of the 20 US top sporting events in terms of attendance were NASCAR races. Only football drew more television viewers that year.

Besides NASCAR, there are a number of other national or regional stock-car sanctioning bodies in the United States. The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), American Speed Association (ASA), and United Speed Alliance Racing (USAR) all sanction their own forms of stock-car racing, on varying types of track, and with various levels of national and media coverage. Young drivers from these series generally aspire to move to the Busch Series or Craftman Truck Series in NASCAR. The International Race of Champions (IROC) series uses stock cars, but is usually perceived as being outside of the usual stock car racing scene because of its 'All-Star' design.
Brazilian stock car in 2006
Brazilian stock car in 2006

Internationally, stock car racing has not enjoyed the same success as within the United States. In Canada CASCAR organizes three racing series (two regional and one national) that enjoy generally strong car-counts; the base of the sport in Canada is the short-oval region of Southern Ontario. In Europe there has been a persistent effort to introduce stock car racing. The Stock Car Speed Association ASCAR or Days of Thunder is based in Rockingham, United Kingdom, though the series has raced at the Lausitzring in Germany as well. Brazil also has a successful stock car racing series, with starting grids of 40 or more cars, and three brands competing: Chevrolet, Mitsubishi and Volkswagen. Brazilian Stock Car also has two developing series. Argentina also have a popular stock series, called Turismo Carretera. Unsuccessful efforts have been made in Australia, South Africa, and Japan as well.

Stock car racing is also a popular local event. Many tracks exist in the United States (and a few in Canada) catering to a wide variety of car types and fans. There are a few organizations that cater to these local short tracks, such as ARCA, ASA and IMCA. NASCAR also supports local short track racing with their Elite Division and NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series racing.

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