An American Original: NASCAR

Few American sports reflect the country that created them as fully as NASCAR. Born from the automobile and shaped by American ingenuity, competition, and grit, NASCAR’s history is, in many ways, America’s history. Its story runs through the rise of the automobile, the breaking of barriers and the relentless pursuit of speed. After World War II, stock-car racing was booming but fragmented. Bill France Sr., a racer and promoter from Daytona Beach, Fla., believed it needed structure. On Dec. 14, 1947, he brought racing figures together at the Streamline Hotel. NASCAR was conceived, and on Feb. 15, 1948, it held its first sanctioned race—on Daytona’s beach-road course. But NASCAR was about more than individual performance.