NASCAR Origins: Revving Up History of Bootlegging Roots

On February twenty first, nineteen forty eight, was an epic moment in American sports history. NASCAR was incorporated while at Etona Beach, aiconic location for an iconic sport. Let's dive into the story behind this amazing event today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. Let's step back in time to the nineteen twenties, a period that's marked by the prohibition of alcohol in the rise of boot leg So what prohibition was. In nineteen twenty the US Constitution passed the eighteenth Amendment, which banned the manufacturing, transportation, and sale of intoxicating liquor that went into effect with the passage of the Falstead Act. Despite the new legislation, prohibition was difficult to enforce in the increase of illegal production and sale of liquor, known as bootlegging, reading rapid, especially in the Appalation area. This also led to the rise of gains in organized crime, and finally, in nineteen thirty three, Congress adapted the amendment with the twenty first Amendment, repelling the eighteenth Amendment, which gave rise to a new sport of NASCAR. The reason why this was a huge deal and why it gave rise to the sport of NASCAR was due to the fact that many of the first stock car racers were bootleggers. Now, stock car is a regular car when you can buy off the lot, but that is altered in a certain way, made to run faster or have different functions that you allow you to either drive better on grass, say in or even pavement. And all these drivers had had these cars and this skill, and they wanted to show that they were the best drivers. Now racing each other wasn't something uncommon, especially when they were even bootlegging, But now that they didn't have a job anymore, they wouldn't find a way to use these skills and show how great they were now. The historical Daytona International Speedway actually began in nineteen oh two, way before bootlegging and the prohibition era, but it was a soundtrack. It wasn't actually made into something substantial till after NASCAR was started, But the beginning of racing had bootleggers such as Junior Johnson and Bill France as Senior facing off against each other, paving the way for others to join their stock car racing trend. There were other noticeable racers such as Lloyd se Hey and Roy Hall, who helped adapt Daytona to it for a motorcycle race for competition. But after competing in many of these races, Bill Francis had the idea. They noticed that people had a desire to watch these races and that many of the drivers loved doing it. But every race had different rules, different things that were going over, and the fans didn't really know all the rules, and it made it difficult maybe to room for it or know the actual stakes. So he had the idea to make an organization that had a coherent rules set and would allow for more legitimacy in the field, making a single government body that everyone could look towards. He had the idea, and he named it the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, better known as NASCAR and now February twenty first, nineteen forty eight, they held a historic meeting at Daytona Beach where they brought together drivers, promoters and enthusiasts of the stock car racing world and they all put together the foundation to incorporate NASCAR. This included for meeting rules that would help legitimize the races, and less than a week later, they held the very first race at Daytona Beach. Now this race has become synonymous, being arguably one of the biggest spectacles in the racing in America, and the very first Daytona race was won by legendary Red Baron, whose name has always been etched in the history in the beginnings of NASCAR, and it showed the beginning of a new era, as now they could go from location to location racetrack and even build racetracks for these races to grow and grow. Their early days of NASCAR was very different than today. Now. If you look at a NASCAR race, it's very difficult to tell the difference between the cars by just looking at them. They are technically stock cars, but they are so modified that you wouldn't recognize them on the road. But before, every car was different, and so the car you drove was very important and very connected to you, which made your fandom a connection to the car as well. But in the early years, they can counted many hurdles such as financial struggles, as owning a car, fixing it up, repairing it after wrecks or bumps on the races and actually being able to hold the races was very expensive and still this is very expensive to this day, but they were able to recruit most of that today and in fact, were able to keep it going by the inclusion of sponsors. You may ask yourself why there's so many sponsors in NASCAR compared to other sports, but the truth is how much money it takes to it. Those cars are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and you need money to keep the car going and advertising was a great way to do this, and the invention of television also helped the growth of the sports. But in nineteen fifty nine, the iconic Daytona International Speedway was built, and this paid away from other venues to copy or mimic what they were doing at this venue. As the sport continued to grow and many fans flocked to these races, but one of the biggest booms they got was in nineteen seventy one when the cigarette company Winston started to sponsor all of NASCAR. This allowed for them to have legitimacy in a name brand that they could tout for all of their races. But many things have changed since the seventies and tobacco advertisements is now illegal in many forms, so Winston is no longer the sponsor of NASCAR, but it was a huge moment for the sports and allowed it to grow even more, legitimizing it and helping it into the minds of everyday people nowadays. Has gone through many different forms, and we have the playoff series that we have now in NASCAR towards the end of the season. The amounts it has grown has been tremendous in short time, as is one the most popular sports in America, even at one point being the most popular spectator sport. Even though it may not be that today, it's still very popular in a great moment, and all stemmed back to a law that some of us did not want to follow. Thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. If you like this, please let us know. I'm a one man production doing the research, editing, and recording, and anything you can tell me about how you enjoy it. I appreciate it, and come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History.