IN THE BEGINNING.... 50 YEARS OF NASCAR RACING

In 1998, NASCAR is pulling out the stops to celebrate its 50th Anniversary. The actual date that NASCAR is celebrating its birthday is February 21st, 1998. On that date in 1948, Louis Ossinsky, a lawyer who was a customer at the gas station owned by the man who began NASCAR, Bill France, officially incorporated NASCAR.

The roots of NASCAR can be traced back to December 14th, 1947, when Bill France convened a meeting of 35 race promoters in the Ebony Bar, located atop the Streamline Motel in Daytona Beach, Florida. One of the men at the meeting, Red Vogt, is said to have come up with the name "National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, " but Bill France is the one who scribbled the current day NASCAR logo on a cocktail napkin.

In 1934, William "Bill" Henry Getty France had moved with his wife and son from Washington, D.C. to Daytona Beach. He developed a fascination with automobiles early in life. By high school, he was building racecars, which eventually led to a job as a mechanic. France also did a bit of racing himself, driving a 1937 Ford Coupe owned by a local Daytona Beach restaurateur, Charlie Reese. Daytona Beach had a long history of racing, with teams initially using the town’s long flat beaches as a place to set land speed records. As the speeds got higher, the action moved to the Bonneville Salt Flats, where it continues to this day.

Back in 1947, the hallmark of NASCAR’s new league was to be the "Strictly Stock" class for late model passenger cars, although no such races were run in the sanctioning body’s first year of existence. This was because the United States had just endured World War II. NASCAR ran it’s first "Strictly Stock" race a few weeks after it’s first birthday, on February 27th, 1949, as a support event to a Roadster and Sports car race. NASCAR held it’s first independent race several months later on June 19th, 1949. Crowd estimates, which were notoriously overstated, were 22,500 fans. Even the more realistic estimates of 14,000-15,000 fans were an incredible turn-out for the race.

In those days, racing was much more dangerous. Rough roads blew tires and broke suspension pieces with alarming frequency. Cars of the era tended to quickly overheat or lose a clutch, and fan belts snapped like rubber bands. When the green flag dropped, the fans watched as the field of "Strictly Stock" cars headed towards the first turn with fenders crunching, suspensions banging, and engines howling as the cars dove into the turn, door handle to door handle, kicking up a thick cloud of dust. The folks on hand were not only seeing a race; they were seeing history in the making as NASCAR stock car racing was born.

Dirt tracks and the cars that went with them are a thing of the past. The modern day Winston Cup Series we all enjoy exists, because through that thick dust, on an afternoon in June of 1949, Bill France saw the future of stock car racing in this country, and he remained true to that vision.

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