A NASCAR Narrative

Racing has always been a popular sport. The ancient Greeks ran in the Olympics while the Romans loved them some chariot races. The English raced ships and horses and they even have camel races in Australia, so it is only natural that we race automobiles as well.

There are two prominent racing organizations in the world and they are very different from each other. The first is the Formula 1 or F1 Indy cars. Their biggest event in the States is the Indianapolis 500, however they remain far more popular overseas. The big daddy in the United States is NASCAR, or the National Association of Stock Car Auto Races.

For reasons yet unknown, NASCAR is hugely popular in the United States. It has roughly 75 million fans and has 17 of the top 20 single day attended sporting events in the country. It has also turned into a 3 billion dollar industry that has created incredibly loyal fans.

Founded in 1948 by Bill France Sr. NASCAR is unique from other sports in that it is still owned and operated by the France family. In fact Bill's grandson Brian is currently the company CEO. It also has a unique championship structure as well. Of course drivers win individual races, but they also are awarded points for every race they finish. Points are assigned based on what position they finish each race in. At the end of the season whoever has the most points wins the Sprint Cup championship.
There are several series of races that NASCAR runs and oversees but there are three bigger series that are the most popular.

The Nextel Sprint Cup Series is the largest, most popular and lucrative series of races. It the Super Bowl of races so to speak. It consists of 36 races over a grueling 10 month period. It also has the most famous racers such as Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and now Danica Patrick. The Cup, as it is often called, was sponsored from 1972-2003 by R.J. Reynolds and known as the Winston Cup. Now that Sprint is the sponsor the cup is named after it.

Next is the Nationwide series that was founded in 1982 and originally sponsored by Budweiser and called the Busch Grand National Series until Nationwide took over in 2007. While it is not as prestigious as the Sprint Cup, many drivers would be more than happy to make their living driving for the Nationwide.

Thirdly there is the Camping World Truck Series. Founded in 1994 and originally sponsored by Craftsmen, this series is slowly gaining more and more popularity. While it is often the final series for many senior drivers the last few years has seen many drivers from the series go on to race in the Sprint Cup, often skipping the Nationwide.

Despite some of its reputation as being Southern and even redneck, NASCAR is becoming more and more popular every year. It is also becoming more and more profitable, something most other sports would love to do.

Aiden Jefferson lives, works, breathes and writes in sunny Southern California. He primarily writes about, history, education and real estate.He has an unrepentant love of pop culture and humor that he works in whenever he can. Enterprise Car Sales is a place you can find a lot of used car reviews.

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