In recent years, NASCAR has lifted itself out of a redneck stereotype and has become a beloved sport with many Americans of all walks of life. What’s not to love? Fast cars, spectacular accidents and photo finishes make NASCAR a sport that keeps its viewers on the edge if their seats.
Before there was NASCAR, there was prohibition. Now, I know from a distance, NASCAR and prohibition seem as far apart as Paris and Poughkeepsie, but the fact of the matter is that we probably would not have NASCAR if we had not had prohibition.
It is no accident that NASCAR was originally a “redneck” or Southern sport. During prohibition, most of the illegal alcohol in the North was smuggled in from Canada. The South had no such access to alcohol so they were forced to make it themselves in moonshine stills. In order for the stills to remain hidden, they were frequently in out of the way locations. A group of people, called moonshine runners or bootleggers became the main transportation system for moonshine.
Running moonshine was no easy task. The police kept a careful eye out for suspected moonshine runners and would chase them down if they saw one. As a result, bootleggers became very good at driving very fast.
Eventually, in between runs, bootleggers would race each other to see who was the fastest and the best. This type of racing continued on even after the need to run moonshine had waned. This pastime eventually became known as stock car racing, since all the cars used were standard, factory line cars.
Stock car racing came to an abrupt halt as World War II began. The country’s limited resources forced the stop of the production of cars. Many of the drivers were drafted for the war effort.
In 1948, a few years after the war ended, some of the former stock car racers and promoters decided that they would form an official group called NACAR, short for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. In 1949, the first official NASCAR race was held in North Carolina at the Charlotte Fairgrounds. The official first winner of that race was Jim Roper but in fact it was Glenn Dunnaway who crossed the finish line first. Glenn Dunnaway was disqualified shortly after the finish of the race due to the fact that inspectors found that he had made modifications to the car, thus making it no longer a “stock” vehicle.
The NASCAR races of today are no longer what you could consider stock. Many of the vehicles are fine tuned, advanced pieces of machinery. This change in stock car racing has not taken any of the fun out of it. Indeed, the modern NASCAR is as exciting, if not more than those early days of NASCAR racing.