NASCAR

Beginning as regional entertainment in the Southeastern U.S. , NASCAR has grown to become the second most popular professional sport in terms of television ratings inside the U.S., ranking behind only the National Football League . Internationally, NASCAR races are broadcast in over 150 countries. It holds 17 of the top 20 attended sporting events in the U.S. 1 , and has 75 million fans who purchase over $2 billion in annual licensed product sales. These fans are considered the most brand-loyal in all of sports, and as a result, Fortune 500 companies sponsor NASCAR more than any other sport. The first NASCAR competition held outside of the U.S. was in Canada, where on July 1 , 1952 , Buddy Shuman won a 200-lap race on a half-mile (800 m) dirt track in Stamford Park, Ontario , near Niagara Falls . On July 18 , 1958 , Richard Petty made his Canadian debut in a race at Toronto at the Canadian National Exhibition Grounds. He completed 55 laps before crashing, while father Lee won the 100-lap feature. The "Car of Tomorrow" is now in the final stages of development. This car has focused mainly on safety, with the driver's seat being moved closer to the center of the car. The car's width has been increased by 4 inches, the front bumper has been re-designed to virtually eliminate bump-drafting, and the height of the car has increased to accommodate taller drivers. The most noticeable change to fans will be the addition of a rear wing. The spoiler currently used will be removed. This has generated some controversy, as teams that run cars in open wheel series (where cars have had wings on them for decades) will have a huge advantage. NASCAR is responding by closely regulating the wing, although some teams have requested that NASCAR issue the wing all together, like they issue restrictor plates.

Modern NASCAR vehicles share very few attributes of the commercial models they are associated with; for example, the production Chevrolet Monte Carlo weighs nearly the same as the NASCAR Chevy Monte Carlo, but the NASCAR vehicle has an eight-cylinder engine driving the rear wheels, whereas the production car has a front-wheel-drive V6 (a V8 is optional). According to NASCAR, about 6,000 US gallons of fuel is consumed during a typical NEXTEL Cup weekend. For the 2006 season, which includes 36 points races, the total for the season would be 216,000 US gallons. One environmental critic recently estimated [11] NASCAR's total fuel consumption across all series at 2 million US gallons (7.57 million liters) of gas for one season; however, the methodology used has been a point of dispute. Supporters note that this is a modern condition: when NASCAR first started 50 years ago, the race cars were substantially similar to production vehicles, but the safety and performance needs of modern racing have required custom-built race cars. Supporters also note that the strict equipment rules place less emphasis on getting a technological advantage, and thus more emphasis on individual driver skill. All of NASCAR's series also run on spec tires made by certain tire manufacturers such as Goodyear and American Racer. Some note that this discourages tire competition and development, which leads to the absence of rain/wet condition tires, or to races (such as the 2005 Coca-Cola 600) where tires seem to self-destruct.