God, I can not believe it's been this long ago. We have come so far.
On June 19th, 1949, 33 cars took the green flag for the first Sprint Cup race, situated at Charlotte Speedway. The race proved to be a booming success, with it being more than a sellout. In fact, a bunch of people were actually turned away from the race! Jim Roper, from Great Bend, Kansas, won the race after Glenn Dunnaway's car was disqualified for illegal springs.
Unfortunately, as time passed, Charlotte Speedway didn't fair too well, and it closed in October 1956. A Penske truck rental sits on top of the track that the first Sprint Cup race was held. A bigger 1.5 mile track in Charlotte hosts the Sprint Cup, and has the longest race on the schedule, the Coca-Cola 600.
The Sprint Cup races, even back then, drew a ton of fans every race, and we still see at least 50 thousand fans at the races today, even as the attendance is going down.
Unfortunately, as time changes, so does everything around it. The Sprint Cup today is practically a mirror image of what we saw in the late 40's to late 60's. The Sprint Cup today doesn't visit any dirt tracks, and the starting gridhas been dropped to 43 cars a race. The 1951 Southern 500 had a bone-rattling starting grid of 82 cars. The 1954 Modified-Sportsman race had astarting grid of an extraordinary 136 cars. The field was limited to 121 cars the next year.
So it's been a great 66 years. Thanks Nascar!
How do you make Brian France's eyes light up?
Shine a flashlight in his ear!
updated by @eric-cardona: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
