NASCAR has become the most popular governing body for stock car racing. Whether you're a car enthusiast, a bettor looking for NASCAR picks, or an everyday sports lover, you'll agree that NASCAR is phenomenal.

NASCAR is an acronym for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. It is a governing body that oversees all the different forms of car racing in the USA.

Read on as we walk through memory lane with NASCAR's history and milestones:

The Beginning 

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) was founded in 1948. While this is the widely known date, stock car racing dates back to the prohibition era, which lasted through the 1920s and 1930s. 

You could say two factors inspired NASCAR. The first one was alcohol, and the second was people who loved alcohol to the extent of modifying their cars to transport them without being detected.

Daytona Beach was the most popular track and the chosen location for speed record competitions. Drivers dashed on a 4.1-mile course with a 1.5-mile to 2-mile stretch of beach as a straightaway and a beachfront route as another region of the course.

Bill France

William "Bill" France Sr. (1909-1992), a mechanic, was the leading man behind the establishment of NASCAR. He moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1935 because of the Great Depression. 

France desired a governing body to sanction and promote racing after seeing how racing rules could differ from event to event and how fraudulent promoters could run off with prize money. In 1936, he entered the Daytona event and placed fifth. In 1947, he gathered with fellow racers and supporters to suggest creating a sanctioning body. 

This meeting led to the formation of NASCAR in 1948, which had three distinct divisions: Modified, Roadster, and Strictly Stock. They quickly dropped the Roadster division due to a lack of fan interest.

The First Race

The first NASCAR event was held on February 15, 1948, in Dayton, and it was a Modified division race. While this was the first event by the institution, most people believe 1949 was the year that the racing world transformed.

The first Strictly Stock race by NASCAR took place at the Charlotte Speedway in North Carolina on June 19, 1949. Thirteen thousand fans watched in awe as Glenn Dunnaway was the first to complete the two-hundred-lap race with his Ford. Unfortunately, he was disqualified for installing illegal rear springs on his vehicle, and Jim Roper and his Lincoln were awarded the $2,000 prize. 

NASCAR Through The Years

Darlington Raceway, the first NASCAR-based track, was opened in 1950, while the Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959. The first Daytona 500 was hosted at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway. Over 41,000 fans attended and watched as Lee Petty was crowned the winner. 

The Daytona 500 became one of NASCAR's major events and kicked off the season. Lee Petty's son Richard, who started his racing career in 1958, won the Daytona 500 seven times and became NASCAR's first superstar before stepping off the gas in 1992.

Bill France's son, William France Jr., took over the presidency of NASCAR from his father in 1972. Throughout the next three decades, he was instrumental in converting NASCAR from a provincial sport favored mainly in the southeast U.S. into one with a global fan base. William France Jr. led NASCAR into a new age of lucrative corporate sponsorships and T.V. contracts, which goes on to this day. 

One of the major races that put NASCAR in the limelight occurred on February 18, 1979. A final tussle between drivers Cale Yarborough and Donnie and Bobby Allison was a huge hype generator and helped expand NASCAR's popularity on a national scale. 

NASCAR has taken off from the humble beginnings of hosting races with cars driven off the street to broadcasting the advanced racing machines of today. The ceremony of watching races has been a pleasure shared by many Americans for decades, and the legacy continues. It's not only famous in America, but it incorporates a diverse set of drivers and fans and brings people together to watch its events.