NASCAR Basics
What is 'stock' about a stock car?
What is stock about a stock car is the emblem on the hood to tell you it's a Ford, Chevy, Dodge, Toyota, or whatever it is. There is anything, and I'm being a little facetious. The engine blocks and heads are stock from when they originally get them, but then they modify them. Everything on the car - the wheels, the brakes, the tires, fuel cells, the roll cage, all of that stuff is made for that car. A lot of it is in the interest of safety, and a lot of it the interest to go fast and sustain speeds and not have the car last through 500 miles.
What are some of the NASCAR touring divisions?
There's the NASCAR truck series, which is basically pickup trucks, but they're not stock pickup trucks. OK, they're purpose built for racing but they look like pickup trucks. There's the Busch series which is the next to the top form of stock car racing and they're your basic stock cars modified. They don't have quite the horsepower of the Nextel, the top rung NASCAR cars and they're not quite as fast but its a very fast and competitive series. And then there's the major NASCAR series.
What is the NASCAR NEXTEL cup series?
The NASCAR NEXTEL cup series is the highest level of NASCAR racing. That's the ones you see on Sunday on TV. That's the ones that run thirty three or thirty five races.
