Understanding NASCAR

Answers to questions racing in your head

Mac Demere / autoMedia.com

Many new fans wonder what is "stock" about a NASCAR Sprint Cup stock car. Even long-time fans may not know how stock cars are built. And few new fans know the roots of stock car racing. Read on and learn the answers.

"Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday"

Originally, "stock" meant unchanged from the showroom floor: The racecar came straight from an automobile dealer's stock. For more than 100 years, auto manufacturers have seen the promotional benefit of stock-car racing: "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday." For just as long, spectators have enjoyed the fantasy that they could take their personal cars onto the track and compete with the pros.

NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) was founded in 1947 and its Strictly Stock Division debuted soon afterward. But racing totally unmodified cars didn't work. Many production parts couldn't survive the strain of racing and crashing. Also, giant loopholes in the rules were opened by special optional equipment (read: racing parts) offered by the factories. So, NASCAR evolved away from "strictly stock." Heavy-duty truck parts were fitted to the racing coupes. Roll bars, designed to protect drivers when they tipped over on slow-speed quarter-mile dirt tracks, morphed into welded tube-steel space frames—birdcage-looking structures that took over the function of the stock frame.

In the '50s, NASCAR cars still started life on a Detroit assembly line. By the late '60s, production pieces had dwindled to body sheetmetal, engine block, floorpan, and the core of few other parts, such as the rear axle and transmission. NASCAR's technological evolution slowed to a glacial pace at this point: Even the current car design, which was used part-time in 2007 and full-time starting in 2008, retains some design found on '60s NASCAR racers. These include the "truck-arm" rear suspension. While such components are based on production-line pieces, they have been redesigned and are now built for racing.

The rear-wheel-drive, carbuereted-pushrod-V-8-powered, tube-framed Cup car is more closely related to an Indy car from the late '50s or early '60s than it is to a front-wheel-drive, fuel injected-overhead-cam-V-6-powered, stamped unibody, production-line road car.

Today's Stock Cars

Today's stock cars start life as a pile of steel tubes, sheet steel, and built-for-racing components. Even the engine blocks are specially designed and cast for racing. Many top teams build their own chassis and bodies, but some parts come from specific NASCAR-mandated suppliers. Bodywork must fit a precise, a multi-dimensional gauge called a template. In addition, locations of many mechanical components are strictly controlled: Before being raced cars must be submitted to the NASCAR Research and Development Center in North Carolina for inspection. Certain part are then marked or sealed to prevent alterations.

The 358-cubic inch engines employed in Cup are the old-style cam-in-block "pushrod" V-8s. Exact power output figures are a cross between liar's poker and closely guarded secrets, but "about 850 horsepower" is a pretty good guess. With that much power, Cup cars would probably run 240 mph or so at Talladega and Daytona, which would be unsafe for both drivers and fans. So, restrictor plates—aluminum squares with four small holes drilled into them—are inserted between the carburetor (an ancient device that mixes fuel and air) and the engine. This reduces the flow of air into the engine and limits power to around 600 horses.

Runners to Racers

To reach its first level of prominence, stock car racing needed an unintended boost from the U.S. government in the form of alcohol tax laws. For more than 200 years, farmers in the hills and hollers of Appalachia have converted grain into alcohol to ease transportation to market. For just as long, the government has sought to close down these backwoods entrepreneurs. In the 1930s and '40s, in order to avoid apprehension while transporting their product to the big cities, moonshiners modified their cars with hot-rod engines, stiffened chassis, upgraded suspension, and big tires: exactly the same things you'd do today if you were building a hobby-stock racecar. And they learned to drive fast. That's because they went to jail if the "revenuers" caught them. Many of NASCAR's early stars learned their trade this way.

When they weren't hauling white lightning, the runners went to the local bullring to see who had the fastest car and was the best driver. Some found it an enjoyable way to supplement their income. But it was far from organized until Bill France's dominant personality came on the scene. France not only organized these rules-averse individuals, but also succeeded in having them submit to his benevolent dictatorship.

In-Car Camera Power

By 1960, thanks in part to promotional help from the automakers, NASCAR's Grand National series—the forerunner of today's Cup series—had reached the top echelon of auto racing. But it was primarily a Southern phenomenon largely ignored by stick-and-ball-dominated sports media. The arrival of R.J. Reynolds' Winston cigarette brand as series sponsor in the '70s boosted the sport further, but it still wasn't the crossover success it is today. Many attribute NASCAR breakthrough to the arrival of in-car video cameras and cable television. The in-car camera allowed fans to vicariously put themselves behind the wheel. By the late '80s, virtually all Cup races were telecast live on cable networks and fans could follow the sport without relying on the mainstream media. Old-time fans are constantly amazed at the coverage the mainstream media gives this once-regional sport.

There's nothing stock in stock car racing, but fans love it anyway.