NASCAR stock car racing has been a popular pastime for decades now and with a good reason. The sport originated in the Southern United States but quickly spread to the rest of the country (and later the world), and is now only second to football in terms of popularity in the US.
Today we’re going to look at some NASCAR facts and stats about this fascinating sport.
(Source: FOX Sports)
In the long list of lesser-known NASCAR facts, one of the more notable is linked to the history of NASCAR cars. Those were first modified and enhanced for outrunning cops because they were used for running illegal moonshine whiskey on weekdays during the prohibition era in the 1920s and 1930s. Drivers would put on exhibitions on weekends to see which one was the fastest.
Mechanic William France Sr., who entered one race in 1936 and finished fifth, took over running the event in 1938. In 1947, France had the foresight to create a sanctioned body to run stock car races through, so in 1948 he met with influential drivers and promoters to create the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.
The first ‘Strictly Stock Race’ took place at the Charlotte Speedway, which was the first NASCAR track, on June 19, 1949. Jim Roper won driving a 1948 Lincoln after Glenn Dunaway was disqualified for modifying his rear springs. The division was known as the ‘Strictly Stock Division’, it was renamed the ‘Grand National Division’ starting with the 1950 season.
(Source: SB Nation)
Looking at Richard Petty’s NASCAR stats, it’s hard to deny that he’s the most accomplished stock car driver of all time. Petty has made Daytona 500 history by winning the event a record seven times, following in the footsteps of his father, Lee Petty, one of the great early NASCAR drivers who also won the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959.
Petty is second on the NASCAR all time win list with 200 career race wins, eclipsed only by Kyle Busch. His impressive career stats include 513 consecutive starts between 1971 and 1989, a record number of poles (127) and over 700 top 10 finishes.
Petty has reached more NASCAR milestones than most drivers could dream of, and in 1992, was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President George Bush. He was also named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998 and inducted into the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010.
(Source: AltDriver)
Kyle Busch is NASCAR racing’s current golden boy and holds several ‘most wins’ records in competition including being at the top of the NASCAR all time win list with 210 wins across NASCAR’s top three series.
Busch further holds the records for most Xfinity Series wins in a single season with 13 and the most overall Xfinity Series wins with 97. He also holds the record for most wins in the Truck Series with 57.
Busch is currently ranked ninth on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Leaderboard. He was also named NASCAR Rookie of the Year in 2005, won the ESPY Award for Best Driver twice, in 2016 and 2019, and is a former WWE 24/7 Champion.
(Source: CBS Sports)
One of the most well-known but still amazing sports facts is that NASCAR drivers can lose up to 10 pounds (4.5 kg) during a race due to high temperatures. In a race, drivers maintain the same heart rate as a serious marathon runner for about the same length of time (120-150 beats per minute for about three hours).
Simply put, NASCAR drivers sweat a lot and the suits they have to wear don’t help at all. In 2015, NASCAR driver Landon Cassill decided to do a little weight-loss experiment during the Brickyard 400.
He placed a thermometer inside his car and took note of his weight before the race. The temperature inside the car was well above 140 degrees ºF (60 degrees ºC) and by the end of the race, he calculated that he’d lost about 8 pounds (3.6 kg) in water weight.
(Source: USA Today)
At face value, the life, career, and triumph of Wendell Oliver Scott, mired by hardship and oppression, seems like it should be the perfect basis for an Oscar-bait biopic. Born in rural Virginia in 1921, the son of a driver and mechanic to well-off white families and a World War II veteran.
He joined NASCAR’s regional ranks in 1950 and, it’s another of the lesser-known NASCAR facts that he won dozens of races during his nine years stint, including several championships. He finally moved up to the Grand National Series in 1961 and won the 1963 Grand National driving a Chevrolet Bel-Air.
NASCAR officials refused to grant him the win and even tried to give it to second place driver Buck Baker. He was eventually granted the win two years later in 1965 but would not receive the winner’s trophy until 2010 — 47 years after the race and 20 years after his death.
(Source: My Drift Fun)
To ensure parity in each race, current NASCAR race cars are required to weigh a minimum of 3,400 pounds (1,542kg), including oil and water, without the driver. One of the most interesting NASCAR tires facts is that each tire weighs 50 pounds (22kg) so 200 pounds of the total required weight (90kg) is just the tires.
NASCAR also requires all cars to weigh no less than 1,625 pounds (737kg) on the right front and rear sides, because NASCAR races are all left-hand turns this rule prevents any car from being aided in turning.
The weight rule is also, tacitly, a safety precaution to prevent cars from flailing around during inevitable crashes.
(Source: Bleacher Report)
Although he hasn’t won a race since 2017, Jimmie Johnson is still considered one of the greatest NASCAR drivers of all time. He won five consecutive NASCAR Cup Series championships between 2006 and 2010.
His wins in 2013 and 2016 placed him firmly in NASCAR elite, tying Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most NASCAR championships of all time.
Jimmie Johnson is the winningest active Cup Series driver in NASCAR today and in 2019, he announced that the 2020 Cup season would be his final full-time season of racing. He is currently ranked 15th on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Leaderboard.
(Source: LA Times)
For a long time, Micheal Waltrip was known as NASCAR’s proverbial bridesmaid. He had a career spanning 16 years and 462 races but no championships to show for it and at the turn of the new millennium Waltrip was hired by Earnhardt to drive for his team. His first race? The 2001 Daytona 500.
Waltrip broke his streak of 462 consecutive Cup races without a win and won his first career points-paying Cup race. His teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. came in second but the whole win was overshadowed by Dale Earnhardt Sr. fatal crash on the last lap.
He later won a rain-shortened Daytona 500 in 2003 but went winless for another 14 years until retiring in 2017.
(Source: Jalopnik)
Unfortunately, apart from the popular NASCAR facts about her, very little is known about the story of Sara Christian but she was a trailblazer in NASCAR for women to come like Janet Guthrie and Danica Patrick.
For Christian, racing was a family affair — she was married to Frank Christian, a racer and NASCAR car owner considered one of the pioneers of the sport. She also had ties to the Flock clan, a family with a strong NASCAR background.
Christian competed in the first-ever NASCAR race in 1949 and competed in seven more races over a two-year career. She had two top 10 finishes and became the first woman, and only, woman to earn a top-five finish in NASCAR series history when she finished fifth in the ninth race of 1949.
(Source: SCNow)
In 1991, Harry Gant started one of the most famed winning streaks in NASCAR history that would earn him the nickname Mr. September — all at the age of 51. Gant won all four Cup races in September at Darlington, Dover, Richmond, and Martinsville.
He became the oldest driver to ever win a Cup Series race at 52 years old and the second oldest driver to win in NASCAR’s second-level circuit, known as the Xfinity Series.
Gant would get five victories in 1991 and earn 15 top-five finishes, 17 top 10 finishes, and would finish fourth in the final overall NASCAR standings.
Q: When was NASCAR invented?
A: The history of NASCAR can be traced back to the 1920s and 1930s during the prohibition era. Stock car racing was first used as a way to smuggle alcohol across the Southeast region of America but was soon formalized by a mechanic named William H.G France who organized the first race in 1938. France later founded the organization that would later be known as the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) in 1948.
Q: How fast can a NASCAR go 0 to 60?
A: NASCAR race cars at a very fast speed, so quickly that they can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3 to 3.5 seconds.
Q: How fast do NASCAR cars go?
A: NASCAR race cars can go as fast as 200 mph (322 km/h) on speedway tracks.
Q: What cars are used in NASCAR?
A: NASCAR 2019 cars either Chevrolets, Fords or Toyotas but in the past other original NASCAR cars of choice have included Buick, Dodge, Pontiac, Hudson, Nash, AMC, Aston Martin, Austin-Healey, DeSoto, Oldsmobile, Alfa Romeo, Mercury, Lincoln, Edsel, Cadillac, Jaguar, Porsche, Volkswagen and Plymouth among others.
Q: How long does a NASCAR engine last?
A: Most NASCAR race car engines are only designed to last one race but they are rebuilt and remodeled after each race.
Q: How many gears does a NASCAR have?
A: NASCAR race cars normally have a four-speed manual transmission but the gearbox is non-synchronous, which means the drivers have to change gears without the clutch.
Q: How many cars are in the Daytona 500?
A: The 2020 Daytona 500, held on February 16 and 17, had 43 cars on the entry list. The highest number of entries in four years.
Q: Can you drive your car on a Daytona speedway?
A: Yes, you can drive your own exotic car or a NASCAR race car at the Daytona Speedway.
Q: Do NASCAR drivers pee in their pants?
A: This is one of the NASCAR facts people are most curious about. NASCAR race car drivers go to the bathroom before the race but even then, like Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr once said, “when you gotta go, you gotta go”.
1. FOX Sports
2. SB Nation
3. AltDriver
4. CBS Sports
5. USA Today
6. Mydriftfun
7. Bleacher Report
8. LA Times
9. Jalopnik
10. SCNow
PointsBet is a fairly new betting site. It was founded in Melbourne, Australia, as recently…
BetAmerica is a sportsbook, casino and horse-racing platform that offers a world-class betting experience available…
5Dimes has been around for quite some time now and is known to many as…
Nitrogen Sports is considered one of the best and most trusted bitcoin sportsbooks. It offers…
Sports has become an essential part of our daily lives and sports viewership statistics prove…
Do you want to know which are the top legal betting sites in the US?…
View Comments