The National Association for Stock Car Racing or as it is better known, NASCAR is the sanctioning body for stock car racing in the United States of America. It is also the generic term for the sport that has spawned more than 1,500 races in America, Canada and Mexico.
Millions of Fans
Besides gridiron football, NASCAR is by far the fan favourite. Around 85 million roaring fans gather in their numbers to watch the quickest cars sprint to the finish at 100 speedways and race tracks in and around America.
It’s not only North Americans who get excited about the sheer speed and guts that embodies the cars and the drivers. NASCAR has hosted races all over the world from Japan to Australia.
Televised World-Wide
Right now, more than 150 countries worldwide broadcast NASCAR races live. Those who don’t get to revel in the racing on live TV - like folk who live in Zambia, Chile and the Philippines - can now stream the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup and Xfinity Series live online.
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What is the big deal about NASCAR? It is where specially modified and supped up cars regularly reach top speeds of 193 kph.
Blistering Top Speeds
At tracks like Talladega Superspeedway - which at 4,28 kilometres is the longest track on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series - it is mandatory to fit restrictor plates to the cars to dampen the speed. Without these plates, cars could quiet easily reach speeds of around 380 kph!
Dozens of Fatalities
At these sorts of speeds, crashes can easily lead to fatalities and NASCAR has had its fair share of those. In total, 82 drivers have died doing what they love doing best - 28 in the NASCAR Cup Series and 54 in all the other series.
The most lethal track of all is the Daytona International Speedway, a track that has accounted for 14 driver deaths including the most recent fatality, that of Dale Earnhardt in 2001.
Physically Punishing
Aside from dodging death NASCAR drivers are physically punished during the race. With temperatures inside the cabs soaring to around 38 to 40 degrees Celsius, drivers lose the equivalent of 4,5 kg in sweat. They also experience a g-force three times that of gravity every time they swing in and out of a corner.
Due to the enormous stress on the body the average drivers’ heart rate is around 120 to 150 beats a second. That’s the same rate that marathon runners like Haile Gebrselassie and Dennis Kipruto Kimetto reach during a 42 km race!
From Bootlegging to Pro Auto Racing
How was NASCAR born? Well according to the guys who know this stuff it all began with the Prohibition. During the dry years in American history folk would disappear into the hills and make moonshine.
To ensure they could outrun the law, the bootleggers who transported the shine to the speakeasies in the cites drove small, light cars that were further modified to maximise speed and agility.
In NASCAR the Process of Skimming and Trimming is a Fine Art
These days, NASCAR racing cars are stripped down to the bare bones and given enough horses to blow their opponents clean off the tracks. They are a new generation of bootlegging cars that have been built by the descendants of the very same moonshiners who did their thing all those years ago.
The only difference between then and now is the NASCAR teams have fine-tuned the process of skimming and trimming to a fine art. Now even the front grills and headlights are vinyl decals!
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