In the beginning God said "Let there be Nasc.........." and it was so......Just Kidding! I'm not trying to commit sacrilege. However I believe that there is something in man that everyone for the most part desires, a natural desire for speed. Think with me now. From the NFL, MLB, PGA, NBA, NHL, NASCAR these all deal with speed. Our competiveness to succeed and be the best at the task at hand to become number #1. Combined with speed man developed a sport with rules and regulations that we call NASCAR. From the humble beginnings to the current development of this fantastic sport resides a place where men and women can go and participate either in driving or cheering our favorite driver to Win. Although speed is important this sport has developed into one not only of speed in MPH but speed of innovation and intelligence and education. It has evolved from a man with a desire to jump into a hotrod and just go fast to a number of different yet very important roles that a team.... Yes A TEAM! Taking the sport to a new level. NASCAR is now a science yet everything continues to focus on speed. The techs that use computers to generate stats and engine performance to air pressure in the tires for handling of the vehicle. All feel the need for speed. They must be first with the fastest and latest technology to determine the needed adjustments to the vehicle to make it function properly in order that the team can WIN! We all like winners. Throughout the history of NASCAR, its race cars have been transformed from regular stock cars, street legal on the highways during the week and race cars on the weekends into the sleek, technologically advanced machines that we see today on highly developed modern speedways. In tracing its humble beginnings we know as the Cup Series, it's necessary to go back to the beginnings of NASCAR and its "Strictly Stock Division."
It all started in the beginning when God created Man in his own image “to be number one” and followed through time until one day we find ourselves on the beautiful Daytona Beach racing.
When NASCAR was formed in 1948 there was a noticeable shortage of new cars in the post-war era. The consensus was that race fans would frown on new cars being beat up on a race track while they were driving a rusted out dilapidated pre-war automobile. Therefore "Modified" cars were born and driven early in NASCAR racing.
In 1949, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. re-visited the idea of racing the cars that people actually drove on the street like late model family sedans. This included convertibles until they realized that they were being outrun by the sedans. A lesson and era in aero-dynamics had begun. Since no other racing organization had seized the idea, France figured it might take root and create added interest in a sport he envisioned.
The success of the modern Cup Series proves he was correct. From the racers' view point, putting a race car together was not a high-dollar deal. If a new Ford sold for about $3,500 to $4,000 due to the lack of modification that could be done to it, the car could be raced for very little more of a convenient investment. (Oh yea baby we need a new car! I believe I'll take it to the track this weekend. Of course just to test it in a controlled environment).
Believe it or not, rental cars were actually used as race cars by point chasing drivers who had no guaranteed ride for an event. Cars typically were either driven to the track or towed behind pick-ups and family vehicles. Other than tweaking and tuning of these gas engines, nothing could be done to these early Strictly Stock cars. The window glass front, back and sides was intact. Ropes and aircraft harnesses were used as seat belts. Roll bars were neither required nor often installed. Roll bars were mandated in 1952.
One thing the strictly-stock designation encouraged was a large variety of manufacturers on the track. The first official Strictly Stock Division race had nine different makes come to the line: Buick, Cadillac, Chrysler, Ford, Hudson, Kaiser, Lincoln, Mercury and Oldsmobile.
Tires were a major problem; wheel and suspension failures seemed to plaque drivers brought on by stresses that were not typical of normal road use. These concerns brought about strange and intuitive solutions such as one detailed by two-time Grand National (forerunner of Cup Series) champion Tim Flock, who described a trap door in the floorboard of his race car that he could open with a chain to check his right-front tire wear. "When the white cord was showing, we had about one or two laps left before the tire would blow," Flock said.
Because of the rough-surfaced dirt tracks that were prevalent in the early days of the sport, the only modifications that were allowed was a reinforcing steel plate on the right front wheel to prevent lug nuts from pulling and or tarring through the rims on the manufactures stock wheels. Otherwise, racing stock cars in the early days of the sport was very much a seat-of-the-pants excursion. But it was one that gave birth to a number of legends of real drivers with an overwhelming desire to win. Legends were created, literally, with their own hands, feet and relentless desire and courage to fulfill… the hidden truth...The Need For Speed.

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