NASCAR HISTORY HIGHLIGHTS BY YEAR - 1940's
1947 - In 1947, NASCAR was first formed into a private corporation. Visionary Bill France saw the potential of a unified, organized racing series and he took a bold, decisive step by announcing the formation of the National Championship Stock Car Circuit (NCSCC). This new touring series for stock car jockeys was complete with a standard set of rules, points standings and prize money. By the end of the 1947 season, attendance at most of the NCSCC races exceeded capacity and France knew it was time for stock car racing to expand beyond its Southern roots. He held a big NCSCC convention in Daytona Beach, appointing technical and competition committees within all factions -- drivers, mechanics, and owners. Louis Jerome "Red" Vogt, ace-mechanic of the era, coined the name for the new organization: National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.
1948 - 1948 was the year the first official NASCAR-sanctioned stock car racing event took place. Drivers -- including females Sara Christian, Louise Smith, and Ethel Flock -- hit the tracks in hopped-up pre-war coupes known as "Modifieds," competing in a total of 52 races. Red Byron wins the first NASCAR-sanctioned auto race in a 1939 Modified Ford owned by Raymond Parks and tuned by Red Vogt. A crowd of 14,000 pays $2.50 each to watch the historic moment at the Daytona Beach-Road course. In February, Louis Ossinski, an attorney and aide to Bill France, completes the paperwork for the new stock car racing organization. NASCAR becomes incorporated. The 1948 NASCAR championship season was full of wrecks, drama, and flair. Tragedy struck on July 25 as Slick Davis becomes the first NASCAR driver to be fatally injured. The tragedy happens in an event at Greensboro, N.C. On August 15,Al Keller spanks the 48-car field in a 200-mile NASCAR Modified race at Langhorne's circular one-mile dirt track. Runner-up Buck Barr finishes 18 laps behind Keller. The following week, NASCAR is forced to cancel a number of scheduled events due to an outbreak of polio in North Carolina. At the end of a very close title chase, Red Byron wins the season finale at Jacksonville, Fla. Byron, winner of 11 of the 52 NASCAR-sanctioned events, edges Fonty Flock by 32.75 points to capture the inaugural championship. Flock is the top winner, taking the checkered flag 15 times, but he finishes 32.75 points behind Byron. Byron collects $1250 in points fund earnings.
1949 - The 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock season came about when Bill France toyed with the idea of a circuit for late-model American cars. Prior to the war, nearly every stock car race was entirely comprised of late-model sedans. But after the war, a shortage of new, postwar automobiles had delayed any serious thought of racing late models. In January, NASCAR President Bill France promotes a 100-mile race at the new Broward Speedway. The huge two-mile speedway consists of a paved circle used as taxiways at the Ft. Lauderdale-Davie Airport. NASCAR returned to Broward Speedway in February, and a second experimental Strictly Stock Late Model race is added to the three-event racing card at Broward Speedway. The Strictly Stock division grew a great deal of interest. Given the interest piqued by two late-model events earlier in the season, NASCAR's Bill France scales back on his promotions of Roadster events and schedules a 200-lap, 150-mile Strictly Stock race at Charlotte Speedway in mid June. France announced plans to conduct a "Strictly Stock" championship. Held on June 19, 1949, the race was open to the fastest 33 cars in qualifications, à la the Indianapolis 500. More than 13,000 spectators attend the inaugural Strictly Stock National Championship race at the 3/4-mile Charlotte Speedway. Glenn Dunnaway crosses the finish line first in a 1946 Ford, but is disqualified when NASCAR inspectors find illegal springs on the former moonshine car. Jim Roper is declared the official winner in a Lincoln. On October 2, Lee Petty records his first NASCAR Strictly Stock victory in the 100-mile race at Heidelberg Speedway near Pittsburgh. Sara Christian finishes fifth, the best finish ever for a female driver in NASCAR's premier stock car racing division. Seven other Strictly Stock races were staged during the 1949 season and tremendous attendance figures attested to their booming success. On October 16, Bob Flock captures the eighth and final 1949 Strictly Stock championship race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Red Byron is crowned the first Strictly Stock champion, finishing 117.5-points ahead of runner-up Lee Petty. After the season ended, Promoter Sam Nunis schedules a 150-mile Strictly Stock race at Atlanta's Lakewood Speedway with the National Stock Car Racing Association (NSCRA) as the sanctioning body. NASCAR's Bill France co-promotes the event, which attracts a crowd of 33,452. Tim Flock wins in an Oldsmobile. As the decade of the 1940s drew to a close, NASCAR's festival of noise and color had achieved a new level of respectability within professional motorsports. In December, NASCAR's public relations office releases the winner of the first Most Popular Driver poll. Curtis Turner garners the most votes by NASCAR racing fans, finishing ahead of Red Byron. Other awards, via a poll of fans, went to Byron (Best Strictly Stock Car Driver), Turner (Best Modified Driver), Sara Christian (Best Woman Driver), and Joe Wolf (Outstanding Mechanic).