History of NASCAR Did you know NASCAR was started because of a historical event in America’s history? The reason I have chosen this project because I grew up watching NASCAR every Sunday, and helping with my dad’s best friend’s race car. The thing I was trying to accomplish in this project was to get a better understanding of the background and history of NASCAR. The process I took in accomplishing my goal was writing a rationale, writing down research questions, and finding Wisconsin’s state standards that I would meet in my project. What I hope that the reader takes from this paper is all of the things that helped NASCAR get started, what they raced on back then, and how NASCAR changed over time. In this paper you will read about the prohibition, Bootleggers tricks and advantages[, Bill Frances Sr., history of NASCAR, Technological advancements, racing legends, aerodynamics, How NASCAR got so big and Wisconsin’s traditions.
NASCAR has an interesting background. It all started with bootleggers racing from town to town delivering their moonshine without getting caught. NASCAR is linked to American history and it comes with some interesting tales. This paper will tell you everything you need to know about NASCAR and aerodynamics of the car. Some things that this paper will contain are famous drivers and their impact on NASCAR, how safely has changed over time, how NASCAR got started, what NASCAR drivers first raced on and why it changed over time, how NASCAR fit its time period, and how the cars got more aerodynamic.
Prohibition:
Back in the 1920’s, alcohol became illegal. The Eighteenth amendment was the Wartime Prohibition Act, which states the sale and making of alcohol, they did this so they could save grain for the war. People did not response to it very well, so people couldn’t get alcohol legally, they started to make illegal liquor which they called “Moonshine.” These people who made the moonshine were called moonshiners because they made the moonshine at night.
The way they made moonshine was a complicated process, first they had to ground the corn into meal, which they called mash. Second the mash is soaked in hot water in the still, then the furnace in brought up to 172 degrees Fahrenheit. Then the alcohol would evaporate, than would travel to worm. The worm is a box with a coil in the middle of was the evaporated alcohol goes down and at the bottom of the box this cold water. Than after the worm the alcohols pours out the tap and into a container, were the alcohol can be stored or transported. When they were making moonshine; they didn’t know how to move it without getting caught. So they modified their cars to travel at high speeds to out-run the cops with the moonshine in their cars. Some of the bootleggers were bragging to other bootleggers that they had reached speeds as high as 120 mph, sometimes without headlights on dirt roads. Moonshiner’s tricks and Advantages
There were a couple important modifications that moonshiners and bootleggers did to their cars, they are bored out the engine, stiffer springs, got rid of the back seat, bigger engine, disconnecting the brake lights, and making hidden compartments or fake panels. When you bore out it cleans the cylinders by taking off .010” out of the cylinder. They did this because it will make the car go faster. If the moonshiners drove by a cop and they had moonshine in the car, the car would be weighted down, so lower to the ground making is suspicious to the cops. So they had put stiffer spring so it would not weigh down the car. The reason why they had got rid of the backseat was just to fit more moonshine in the car. The moonshiners had but a Cadillac ambulance engine in their cars because it had more horsepower and could carry a lot of weigh without slowing the car down. The moonshiners disconnected the brake lights, so at night they were not seen as easily but they did not fully disconnect the brake light they had it to a switch. That is because they did not want to get pulled over for not have brake lights during the day. But the modification that saved a lot of moonshiner from getting caught by the cops was the fake panels and hidden compartments. These hidden compartments would be located in the trunk or in the backseat under the floor panels, somewhere where the moonshiners can have easy access to the shine for quick sale. The moonshiners had a big advantage over the cops because they knew the back road better than the cops. Another advantage they had over the cops is the bootlegger turn, which is where you travel at a high speed in one direction before executing a tight turn and heading in the other direction.
Bill France, Sr. First, I am going to start off with some background on Bill France. Bill France was born on September 26, 1909 near Washington D.C. From a young age, Bill had an interest in mechanics. Bill was raised around car because his dad raced his model T, then I bill teen years bill worked at several jobs. In bills late 20’s bill owned a severice station. His interest grew as he started to teach himself, and in the 1930’s, Bill opened his own garage. Four years, later he moved to Daytona Beach, Florida. Bill also loved to race; he had won a few races in his day but later had to stop because he had to work at the Daytona boat during WWII. After the war ended, he was asked to be a promoter for NASCAR to attract people and make it more well-known, but never got paid for it. The people that promised him money ran off with it instead of paying him for the job he had done. So Bill France saw a big operitunnite where driver could get paid for winning races, so he came up with an idea to charge people 50 cents to watch the race. With that money he split the profit with the drivers within that race. So in December of 1947, Bill called drivers, officials, and promoters to a meeting at Streamline Hotel to talk about starting NASCAR.
NASCAR
December 21st, 1948 was the day to remember. This was the day that NASCAR was started. They had raced these events in Daytona Florida, on the beach. They First race on was the dirt roads back in the prohibition era. But after time they started to race on sand because bill knew that people were setting world fastest time on that Daytona Beach. But as time progressed sand was not the safe to race on, so they changed it to asphalt and concrete tracks for safety issues. NASCARS fastest time was set in Martinsville speedway with 18.746 in 1986.
Many people didn’t believe that this was possible, so they started to race each other on the weekends to prove that they could actually reach such high speeds. There were many people who tried to organize races where they earn money but no one was successful until one man, Bill France Sr., charged people to see the races and split the money with the winner. Because of this, he is credited with creating NASCAR

Technological advancements
There was many technological advancement throw out NASCAR history but this advancement can to NASCAR attenetion in a abrupt way. Bobby Allison's crash at Talladega in 1987. He crashed through the fence and injured some of the fans. That crash brought attention to NASCAR that they need to slow down the cars because driving at top speed was too dangerous and along with this crash they had come up with a way to slow down this car from going top speed. They had called it the restrictor plate, the restrictor plate is an alummunin plate that has four holes drilled to .875” or 1” and it goes between the carburetor and the intake manifold to reduce the flow of air and fuel into the engine's combustion chamber, thus reducing horsepower and speed.
Another technological advancement is the roof flaps. If a car is going about 200 mph and spins out of control, the roof flips would go up and create down draft which keeps the car on the asphalt. A third advancement would be helmets. Helmets have come a long way since NASCAR was first started. Drivers had a choice to wear a helmet or not but when Dale Earnhardt Sr. died by driving into the wall, every driver was required to wear a full face helmet. Another event that changed the helmets used in NASCAR was the last race in 2001. There was an accident on the pit road and there were severe head injuries to a crewman. Because of this, all crewmen were required to wear full face helmets.
Another safety feature that came along with Dale Earnhardt Sr. death was the Hans device. This is a device that connects to the helmet and supports your neck. The seat belt goes over the Hans device, so if the driver gets in a crash where the car smashes the wall head on, the Hans device will keep the neck and head from bouncing around in the car. The Hans device was invented in the early 1980’s and driver where not utilize this safely feature that would have saved there life’s. But after deaths from head and neck injuries, NASCAR had a meeting weather or not to require drivers to wear the Hans device after the meeting the Hans device had to be worn during the races. If they didn’t want to wear the Hans device during the race, then they could not race.
Some more technological advancement that has changed over time throw out NASCAR history is making the cars faster. When NASCAR started drivers had 4 cylinders or whatever they could afford at that time. But as NASCAR progressed they said you have to have this motor to race on the track. This is because that way every driver had a fair chance of winning the races. The motor that they said that they have to have is 358 cubic inch motor that does 300 horsepower. Advancement is getting rid of the exhaust system this is because the exhaust is exits the car faster than going down a pipe. Also getting rid of the pipe had cut down on weight within the car. Advancement the motor was the radical cam profiles, which opens the intake valves much earlier and long, than a street engine. Also, the carburetors that can let huge volumes of air and fuel, there are no fuel injectors on the sprint cars. The advancement that got rid of mirrors and headlights, they got rid of the mirrors because it was creating drag, so they got rid of them. Drivers did not need the headlights because the track was lit up at night and the headlights were just extra weight that was not needed on the car.
Racing Legends The first racing legend I am going to talk about is Dale Earnhardt; Dale Earnhardt was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina, on April 29, 1951, to Martha Coleman and Ralph Lee Earnhardt. Dale Earnhardt died on February 28, 2001 in turn 4 on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Dale Earnhardt was the best short track racer in North Carolina; Dale Earnhardt was a will know driver that was a respected driver on and off the track. Dale Earnhardt had seven championships and 76 wins that stretched in the 2000’s. Dale Earnhardt was inducted into 3 halls of fames; they included Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2002, International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2006, and NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010.
Another racing legend is Richard Petty. Richard Lee Petty was born on July 2, 1937 born to a former race car driver, Lee petty and his mother Elizabeth Petty. He was born in Level Cross, North Carolina. Richard Petty began his NASCAR career 16 days after his 21st birthday. Richard Petty nickname is “The King,” he is well known for winning the NASCAR championship seven times. During his career as a NASCAR driver he won 200 races, winning the Daytona 500 seven times, and winning 27 races in the 1967 season. With the 27 race he won that season 10 of them he won consecutively. Richard petty was inducted into 3 hall of fames they are, NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010, International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1997, and Motorsports Hall of Fame of America Inductee in 1989.
Alan Kulwicki was born on December 14, 1954 to Gerry and Thelma Kulwicki. He was born in local suburb in Milwaukee called Greenfield. He had started his career in racing when he was 13 when he raced on local go-kart tracks. His nickname was the “Polish Prince” and “Special K.” Alan Kulwicki was award the 1986 rookie of the year because his team was well-funded team. Alan Kulwicki had won the 1992 Winston cup driver and owner championship, Alan had a short period in NASCAR but when he was racing, he had a total of 5 wins. Alan was inducted to 4 halls of fames; they are International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2002, National Motorsports Press Associations Hall of Fame, Bristol Motor Speedway’s Heroes of Bristol Hall of Fame in 1997, and the Talladega-Texaco Hall of Fame in 1996.
Junior Johnson was born in Wilkes Country, Norht Carliona to Lora Belle Money and Robert Glenn Johnson, Sr. Junior Johnson was known as a racing legend as well, and was called “The Last American Hero.” He was called this because he was a bootlegger in the 50’s and 60’s; Junior Johnson had a way to get around cops. The way he got around cops was by putting sirens on the top of his car, so when the cops had a road block the cops thought he was a cop and moved the road block out of his way. Junior Johnson had racked up 50 wins over his career and 11 of those wins were at major speedways races. Johnson was the earliest superstar and also invented drafting. Drafting is when you come up behind a car and gain speed because the car in front of you is cutting through the wind for you. Drivers like junior Johnson is the way NASCAR has evolved. Junior was inducted into 3 halls of fames; they include Motorsports Hall of Fame America in 1991, NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010, and International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.
Aerodynamics
Back in the day, cars were not as aerodynamic as they are today. A lot of features on the cars have changed over the past years. Today, cars are more aerodynamic because of things that have been added such as spoilers, nose spoiler and a roof spoiler. Spoiler is located on the back of the car and its main function is the created down draft, to keep the rear of the car on the track. This is because most cars are rear-wheel drive, so the tire is against the track to get better traction. Nose spoiler is located on the bottom of your front bumper; this modification is useful to reduce the air under the car, so the car is lower to the ground. Roof spoiler is a spoiler located on the top of the car to reduce drag and increase stability. Another way that they made cars more aerodynamic was by getting of the edges of the car and making then smooth. The car are more aerodynamic today than 40 years ago is because the cars do not have headlights because the track is light up and there are no side mirror creating less drag.
How NASCAR Got So Big The media and competitors did not start noticing NASCAR until 1990’s. They took note of NASCAR because of the multi car wrecks at Daytona and Talladega. Following Dale Earnhardt death the media went crazy not just in the United States, but all over the world.