National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing

NASCAR is a group of capitolists who hypnotize innocent people by the clever use of fast, loud, high-powered sedans.

A Little History

NASCAR has its origins over 50 years ago, in the 'southern' states of the USA. When automobiles were new, reliability was a problem. In an effort to demonstrate the durability of the new models companies came out with, demonstrations were organized to prove which models were the best and most reliable.

The demonstrations proved successful in changing the image of the American consumer, and also proved to be very popular. This is when someone came up with the idea of charging the spectators money, and selling T-Shirts and Coffee Mugs.

What's All This About Circles?

When the idea came to start charging spectators money, some brilliant fellow also realized that it would be expensive to build bleachers along the 500 mile (or longer) routes they had been following. They decided large circles would be much easier to build around. One of the most famous of these early circles in nearly in use today. Daytona Beach, in Florida hosted some of the most spectacular speed record attempts, and also a difficult race along both the wet sand beach, and a long stretch of beach-front road.

What's this really about?

NASCAR itself is a sactioning body that creates and enforces rules and regulations in order to promote fair competition amongst the many different teams and classes of racing cars.

The most well-known of these classes is the Winston Cup series, but there are many others. The purpose of the separation of classes is to limit the outlay of money for the competitors. In theory, this works. In practice, the more money you have, the faster your car can go, and the more likely you will get away with cheating.

Although the NASCAR Winston Cup and Busch series are considered "stock car" classes, there is little resemblence between the cars on the track and the ones you can purchase in the showroom. This has not always been the case, and in fact the original "stock car" classes were indeed purchased in showrooms.

In the early days of competative motor sports, a popular saying was "race on Sunday, sell on Monday".

So, What's All This About Circles?

After a short time, it was discovered that if the drivers went around these circle tracks enough times, the viewing public would be sent into a deep spending trance. Vendors were immediately dispatched to collect the poor souls money, and an American addiction was born.

The sport of automobile racing is expensive, even in the entry-level classes. A bare-bones team at the highest level of competition can spend well over a million dollars and still end up last.

Because of this, most teams seek outside help supporting their addiction. These usually involve large corporations, and in exchange for money, the teams paint images and logos on the cars, and agree to appear in photos, video commercials, and sometimes in person at special events also sponsored by those companies.