NASCAR 101 – SPRINT CUP, NATIONWIDE SERIES, & CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES

An overview of the history of NASCAR and its three divisions   NASCAR is the abbreviation for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. There are three different racing series or divisions within NASCAR. First is the Sprint Cup Series, named for the lead sponsor.

 
The Cup Series is the highest ranked in stock car racing with the top rated drivers. Cup racing also draws the most recognition and pays the most prize money to its team owners and drivers for their accomplishments at each of the more than 20 tracks that are sanctioned by NASCAR.

The second division is the Nationwide Series, which ran its first full season in 1982 and is named for its sponsorship from the Nationwide Insurance. Drivers generally work their way through this series on their way to participation in the Sprint Cup. Many of the Nationwide Series drivers work their way up through the ranks from NASCAR’s third division, the Craftsman Truck Series. This series is sponsored by Craftsman Tools and is the newest of the three divisions, starting in 1995. 

Sprint Cup Series	Nationwide Series	Craftman Truck Series

 
As many know, NASCAR’s origins are with the prohibition era, when the sale and consumption of alcohol was outlawed in 1919. This prompted people to make their own brews and some enterprising individuals, especially in the south, continued to make and sell their own whiskey. They had to transport it from hidden stills to customers, which gave birth to the Moonshine Runners, drivers of souped-up cars who enjoyed the risk and thrill of outracing the law with their whiskey.  These runners soon decided to get together to race their cars to see who had the best car and who the best driver was.
 
Eventually official race tracks were built and Sunday afternoon races became weekly events that drew large crowds and paid money to the drivers. It was the idea of Bill France Sr., a service station owner who built and raced stock cars and promoted races throughout the south, to create an association that would protect race drivers from crooked race promoters. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing was born in 1947, and sanctioned its first racing season in 1949.
 
The new association made sure that racetracks were safe for the drivers, established a consistent set of rules from track to track, created a uniform points system to measure a driver’s performance during the season, and made a set schedule featuring the same drivers.
 
The sport of Cup racing has evolved into a highly technical enterprise where a win can be determined by a mere tenth of a second. The only part of the race car that is “stock” is the 350 cubic inch engine block, and its cylinder holes. Everything else from the tires to the roof is built especially for racing. An average Cup car costs more than $200k to build and different cars are needed for different types of race tracks.
 
The Sprint Cup Series cars are bigger and the most powerful. The Cup cars have 110 inch wheelbase compared to a Nationwide car with a 105 inch wheelbase, although they both are 51 inches high and 72.5 inches wide. A Cup car weighs 3400 pounds as opposed to the 3300 pound weight of the Busch car. NASCAR race cars are not fuel injected like their stock counterparts; they use Holly four barrel carburetors. The Cup cars use a Holly 750 which helps the race engine usually develop over 750 horsepower as opposed to the Nationwide cars which use the Holly 550 and produce over 550 horsepower.
 
The trucks are an entirely different breed, although a lot of race drivers find a similarity between the trucks and Cup cars. The 3400 pound weight is the same, but the wheelbase of the race truck is two inches longer than a Cup car at 112 inches. The truck engine turns just a little over 700 horsepower.