The Golden Years

In its 50th year, NASCAR and its Winston Cup series are wallowing in success that couldn’t possibly have been foreseen by Big Bill France when he assembled a group of friends in a hotel room in Daytona Beach, Fla., and declared that what this country needed was a stock car racing organization.

France’s first edict was that races should be “strictly stock,” but more important than that in the growth of the series has been a word that probably was never considered at that first meeting: parity.

Parity, as defined by the house of France, has been refined over the years and is responsible for the most competitive--and prosperous--motor racing series in the world. Last year, according to Sponsors Report, television broadcasts of Winston Cup events generated more than $1 billion in exposure for the sport’s sponsors.

The France family runs NASCAR like a benevolent dictatorship, which means that when Bill France Jr., who replaced his father as head of the realm in 1972, thinks a rule change will keep competition closer, NASCAR makes the change. If necessary, a change will be made as late as the morning of a race.

Although this attitude often irritates manufacturers and teams that hold slight advantages, it keeps competition close. For instance, in this season’s nine races, there have been seven winners, and only 237 points separate leader Rusty Wallace from ninth-place Dale Earnhardt in a group of cars that includes five Fords, three Chevrolets and a Pontiac.

Once car dealers found that the popular slogan “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” really worked, it stimulated interest in Detroit that brought manufacturers into a sport populated mostly by refugees from backwoods racing in cars hopped up to run moonshine from mountain still to urban seller.

The demands on winning soon undermined France’s early rule that cars be “strictly stock.”

They were so showroom stock 50 years ago that two-time champion Herb Thomas said he played his car radio during races. Others admitted to using their dashboard cigarette lighter as they raced.

Today, the cars driven by Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin and the other bigger- than-life personalities are no more stock than Formula One or Indy cars. They are full-bred racing machines, created to look like, but not run like, American-built passenger cars.

There are no Lolas, Reynards, Ferraris, Dallaras or Toyotas in NASCAR, there are only Fords, Chevrolets and Pontiacs. Once there were Lincolns, Mercuries, Chryslers, Plymouths, Dodges, Oldsmobiles, even Hudson Hornets, but never anything from foreign lands.

Except for one road race in New Jersey in 1954. There, a Jaguar sneaked in--and won.

It is truly an American sport. NASCAR has never had a winning driver from a foreign country. In its formative days, the drivers were almost exclusively from the Southeast. Because it started out as a regional sport, its early heroes were little known beyond the Mason-Dixon line.

France realized that if NASCAR’s Grand National series, forerunner of Winston Cup, was going to gain wider recognition, he had to move into other areas. Races were scheduled in California, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania.

What might have been the most significant change, however, occurred far from the racetrack, far from France headquarters.

When the Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that tobacco companies could not advertise on television, that left a vacuum for the vast sums of money that had been earmarked for advertising.

At about that same time, legendary driver-car owner Junior Johnson approached some old Carolina friends at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., about sponsoring his car. The response was not to sponsor the car, but to sponsor the entire series.

Thus was born the Winston Cup.

With the birth of Winston Cup, in addition to millions of dollars in point-fund and bonus money, came a more aggressive move toward nationalizing stock car racing. For starters, the annual championship awards dinner was moved from Daytona Beach to the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, as a black-tie gala.

This week, the scene moves cross-country to Hollywood.

To celebrate its golden anniversary, NASCAR is giving itself a birthday party, “NASCAR’s Night in Hollywood--A Golden Celebration.” With a galaxy of Hollywood celebrities, among them James Garner, Martin Sheen, Robert Goulet, Tim Allen, Jay Leno and Craig T. Nelson, the two-hour festivities will be taped Friday night at the Wiltern Theatre and will be shown Saturday night on ESPN at 7.

Entertainment will include a look at NASCAR’s 50-year history through music, dance and comedy routines.