nextel cup series now sprint cup series race cars at infineon raceway now sonoma raceway in 2005 sport stock car racing category auto racing jurisdiction canada european union mexico united states abbreviation nascar founded february 21 1948 ; 68 years ago 1948 02 21 headquarters daytona beach florida main charlotte north carolina chairman brian france chairperson mike helton vice chairman chief exec brian france other key staff brent dewar coo steve o donnell crdo steve phelps cmo gary crotty clo ed bennett cao r. todd wilson cfo james d. o connell cso official website www.nascar.com the national association for stock car auto racing nascar is an american family owned and operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events . bill france sr. founded the company in 1948 and his grandson brian france became their ceo in 2003 . 1 nascar is motorsport s preeminent stock car racing organization . 2 the three largest racing series sanctioned by this company are the sprint cup series the xfinity series and the camping world truck series . the company also oversees nascar local racing the whelen modified tour the whelen all american series and the nascar iracing.com series . nascar sanctions over 1 500 races at over 100 tracks in 39 of the 50 us states as well as in canada . nascar has presented exhibition races at the suzuka and motegi circuits in japan the aut dromo hermanos rodr guez in mexico and the calder park thunderdome in australia . 3 nascar has its official headquarters in daytona beach florida and also maintains offices in the north carolina cities of charlotte concord and conover . 4 regional offices are located in new york city and los angeles with international offices in mexico city and in toronto . owing to nascar s southern roots all but a handful of nascar teams are still based in north carolina especially near the city of charlotte . nascar is second to the national football league among professional sports franchises in terms of television viewers and fans in the united states . 5 internationally its races are broadcast on television in over 150 countries . 6 in 2004 nascar s director of security stated that the company holds 17 of the top 20 regularly attended single day sporting events in the world . 7 fortune 500 companies sponsor nascar more than any other motor sport 8 although this sponsorship has declined since the early 2000s . 9 contents 1 history 1.1 early stock car racing 1.2 significant people 1.2.1 william france sr. 1.2.2 erwin cannonball baker 1.2.3 bob barky barkhimer 1.2.4 wendell scott 1.3 founding 2 sanctioned series 2.1 sprint cup 2.2 xfinity series 2.3 camping world truck series 2.4 pinty s series 2.5 mexico series 2.6 whelen euro series 2.7 regional racing series 2.7.1 whelen all american series 2.7.2 whelen modified tour 2.7.3 k & n pro series 2.7.4 autozone elite and other divisions 2.8 nascar iracing.com series 3 driver safety 4 criticism 5 global expansion 6 nascar.com 7 subsidiaries and sister organizations 7.1 nascar digital media 7.2 international speedway corporation 7.3 grand am 7.4 education 8 nascar in culture 9 see also 10 notes 11 references 12 external links history early stock car racing junior johnson seen here in 1985 was a popular nascar driver from the 1950s who began as a bootlegging driver from wilkes county north carolina . in the 1920s and 30s daytona beach became known as the place to set world land speed records supplanting france and belgium as the preferred location for land speed records with 8 consecutive world records set between 1927 and 1935 . 10 11 after a historic race between ransom olds and alexander winton in 1903 the beach became a mecca for racing enthusiasts and 15 records were set on what became the daytona beach road course between 1905 and 1935 . by the time the bonneville salt flats became the premier location for pursuit of land speed records daytona beach had become synonymous with fast cars in 1936 . 12 drivers raced on a 4.1 mile 6.6 km course consisting of a 1.5 2.0 mile 2.4 3.2 km stretch of beach as one straightaway and a narrow blacktop beachfront highway state road a1a as the other . the two straights were connected by two tight deeply rutted and sand covered turns at each end . 13 stock car racing in the united states has its origins in bootlegging during prohibition when drivers ran bootleg whiskey made primarily in the appalachian region of the united states . bootleggers needed to distribute their illicit products and they typically used small fast vehicles to better evade the police . many of the drivers would modify their cars for speed and handling as well as increased cargo capacity and some of them came to love the fast paced driving down twisty mountain roads . the repeal of prohibition in 1933 dried up some of their business but by then southerners had developed a taste for moonshine and a number of the drivers continued runnin shine this time evading the revenuers who were attempting to tax their operations . 2 the cars continued to improve and by the late 1940s races featuring these cars were being run for pride and profit . these races were popular entertainment in the rural southern united states and they are most closely associated with the wilkes county region of north carolina . most races in those days were of modified cars . street vehicles were lightened and reinforced . 14 significant people william france sr. main article bill france sr. mechanic william france sr. moved to daytona beach florida from washington d.c. in 1935 to escape the great depression . he was familiar with the history of the area from the land speed record attempts . france entered the 1936 daytona event finishing fifth . he took over running the course in 1938 . he promoted a few races before world war ii . france had the notion that people would enjoy watching stock cars race . drivers were frequently victimized by unscrupulous promoters who would leave events with all the money before drivers were paid . in 1947 he decided this racing would not grow without a formal sanctioning organization standardized rules regular schedule and an organized championship . on december 14 1947 france began talks with other influential racers and promoters at the ebony bar at the streamline hotel at daytona beach florida that ended with the formation of nascar on february 21 1948 . 15 erwin cannonball baker main article erwin george baker the first commissioner of nascar was erwin cannonball baker . a former stock car motorcycle and open wheel racer who competed in the indianapolis 500 and set over one hundred land speed records . baker earned most of his fame for his transcontinental speed runs and would prove a car s worth by driving it from new york to los angeles . after his death the famous transcontinental race the cannonball run and the film that was inspired by it were both named in his honor . baker is enshrined in the automotive hall of fame the motorcycle hall of fame and the indianapolis motor speedway hall of fame . this level of honor and success in each diverse racing association earned baker the title of king of the road . 16 bob barky barkhimer main article bob barkhimer in the early 1950s the united states navy stationed bill france jr. at the moffett federal airfield in northern california . his father asked him to look up bob barkhimer in san jose california . barkhimer was a star of midget car racing from the world war ii era and later ran about 22 different speedways as the head of the california stock car racing association . young bill developed a relationship with bob barkhimer and his partner margo burke . he went to events with them stayed weekends with them and generally became very familiar with racing on the west coast . barky as he was called by his friends journeyed to daytona beach and met with bill france sr. in the spring of 1954 nascar became a stock car sanctioning body on the pacific coast under barky . wendell scott main article wendell scott wendell scott was the first african american to win nascar premier series trophy and the first african american to win a race in the grand national series now the sprint cup series nascar s highest level . he was posthumously inducted into the nascar hall of fame in charlotte n.c. january 30 2015 . 17 founding on march 8 1936 a collection of drivers gathered at daytona beach florida . the drivers brought coupes hardtops convertibles and sports cars to compete in an event to determine the fastest cars and best drivers . throughout the race the heavier cars got bogged down in the sand while the lightweight fords navigated the ruts of the course eventually claiming the top 6 finishes for the race . of the 27 cars that started the event only 10 managed to survive the ordeal as officials halted the event 10 miles short of the scheduled 250 mile distance . driver milt marion was declared the winner and a young bill france placed 5th at the end of the day . 18 by early 1947 bill france saw the potential for a unified series of racing competitors . france announced the foundation of the national championship stock car circuit otherwise known as ncscc . 19 france approached the american automobile association or aaa in hopes of obtaining financial backing for the venture . when the aaa declined support of the venture france proceeded to announce a set of rules and awards for the ncscc . france declared that the winner of the 1947 ncscc season would receive 1000.00 and a trophy . the season would begin in january 1947 at the daytona beach track and conclude in jacksonville the following december . nearly 40 events were logged during the season and attendance often exceeded the venue s capacity . the competitors were paid as promised and by the end of the season driver fonty flock was declared the season champion after winning 7 events of the 24 that he entered . bill france delivered the 1000 and 4 foot high trophy to flock at the end of the season along with 3000 in prize money to other drivers who competed throughout the season . 20 at the end of the 1947 season bill france announced that there would be a series of meetings held at the streamline hotel in florida beginning on december 14 1947 . at 1 00 pm france called to order the 35 men who represented the ncscc on the top floor of the hotel . the meeting was the first of four seminars in which france would outline his vision of an organized group of race car drivers . 21 the name originally chosen for the series was national stock car racing association ; when it was pointed out that that name was already in use by a rival sanctioning body national association for stock car auto racing proposed by mechanic red vogt was selected as the organization s name . 22 nascar was founded by william france sr. on february 21 1948 with the help of several other drivers of the time . 1 the points system was written on a bar room napkin . the original plans for nascar included three distinct divisions modified roadster and strictly stock . the modified and roadster classes were seen as more attractive to fans . it turned out that nascar fans wanted nothing to do with the roadsters which fans perceived as a northeast or midwest series . the roadster division was quickly abandoned while the modified division now operates as the whelen modified tour . the strictly stock division was