Nicole Savinda – Term Paper

How is NASCAR a reflection of class-based and regional identities

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, or NASCAR for short, was
founded in 1948. Started by Bill France Sr., it is a privately owned company headquartered in
Daytona Beach, Florida. France was a mechanic from Washington D.C. who moved to Daytona
Beach in the 1930’s. He quickly realized that there was a lot of issues in the street racing circuit.
The prize money was being taken by the promoters instead of going to the drivers. The rules
were very unclear.
Upon watching this dishonesty, he decided that something needed to be done. Working
alongside other members of the racing community, they joined together to create a governing
body. (2009, History) NASCAR would “make racing legal” and “bring drivers together to
showcase their cars and talents on a larger stage”. (Shipman)
The history of street racing is an interesting one. Stock car racing goes all the way back
to the Prohibition Era. The poor working class people of the south were trying to make the best
with what they were given. Bootleggers needed a way to quickly deliver their product. What is
a bootlegger? A bootlegger is someone who is illegally manufacturing, distributing or selling
goods, such as alcohol. In this case, they were illegally selling and delivering moonshine.
These bootleggers would have their mechanics fix up their cars to make them faster or
make them handle better. The faster their car, the more product they can deliver. The more
product they can deliver, the more money they make. As the bootleggers started making more
and more money, they kept making improvements to their cars. If their car was fast enough, they
could avoid getting caught by the police.
As the number of modifications to these cars increased, the sport of street racing
developed. Bootleggers started to see that others were doing the same things to their cars. This
opened up a new world of competition. They started to race their cars on Sunday afternoons,
then deliver their moonshine on Sunday evenings. (Zirin 111) The dirt tracks were a great
start for these novice racers. However, as these races gained popularity, the need arose for a safe
environment for these races to take place.
NASCAR was a sport born in the south, Therefore, most of the drivers were from the
south as well. It has been said that racing is a redneck sport. A redneck is defined as a poor
white male from the rural parts of Southern United States. This was fitting, considering that
most of the original drivers were hard working men who worked in the factories or the fields.
Race car driver Junior Johnson said “people who go to the races are more of the people who
work in the factories” while “people that go to the golf games are people that work in an office
or own the factories”. (Poole 2)
Correlating with the poor aspect of the redneck classification, many of the NASCAR
drivers were men who lived in extreme poverty. These were southern boys who wanted to do
more with their lives than just working in the fields. They spent most of their time working in
the fields and the factories, hunting and fishing. What little free time and money they had left,
they spent on souping up their cars.
NASCAR was known as the sport for the low class, hard-working, southern people also
known as the “blue collar” workers of the south. The fans were considered to be “rednecks” or
“southern yuppies”…listening to country music and flying the Confederate flag.
The Confederate flag was a symbol that was seen at nearly every race. Some of the
drivers even had the flag painted on their cars. What is the significance of the Confederate flag?
Southerners associate the flag with pride in their heritage. It is a commemoration of the Civil
War and how their states gained their rights. The flag represents an independent cultural
tradition of the Southern United States.
In 1949, the first stock car race took place in North Carolina. Darlington Raceway was
the location of this 200 lap race. Thousand of people showed up at the race that day. (Shipman)
This was becoming another sport that would prove to be a distraction for the people in the south.
“Leisure and sport always contain some element of escape from the intertwining variables of
economic fate and social status.” (Poole 3) In other words, it would give the working class a
place to go to forget about politics, their jobs, and their daily lives for a few hours. They could
just hang out with friends, enjoy themselves and relax. “Stock cars, driving them or watching
them, has long provided escape for the southern working class.” (Poole 4)
Stock car racer Carl Yarborough grew up on a tobacco farm in South Carolina. He
remembers thinking “there had to be a better way to make a living than digging around in the
dirt”. Dale Earnhardt was another one of those men. Both of these famous drivers grew up in
poverty. While they were able to make a better living for themselves, neither of them were quick
to forget about their southern roots. (Poole 4)
“In a single moment, country music, stock car racing, and the working class white
conservatism of “Reagan Democrats” became symbolically linked.” It is said that there is a
connection between country music and NASCAR. This is see in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s song White
Knuckle Ride. In this song, he touched on this idea of growing up in poverty and making a better
life by portraying a driver who remembers his roots even after becoming successful in
NASCAR. (Poole 6)
The flying of the Confederate flag would eventually be the cause of much controversy in
NASCAR. Racism was the main reason for this. There has been very little presence of African
American drivers in stock car racing. The Confederate flag display at these events may be
partially to blame for that. The flag is seen as a symbol of slavery and white supremacy. You
can see why that might deter African Americans from the sport.
Despite some complications, the number of race tracks grew quickly. People would
travel hours to watch their favorite driver. The sport of stock car racing was on the rise. While
the greatest number of fans were living in the south, people from the north were rapidly gaining
interest. The facts remain, however, that “the roots of NASCAR lie in the outlaw culture of the
south”. (Zirin 111)
We see another one of Zirin’s themes coming through in stock car racing. That theme is
masculinity. Within NASCAR, this was and still is prevalent. The drivers are predominantly
white males. Racing gave these redneck men a sense of independence. Reporter Michael Kelly
said that “This South – the overwhelmingly white, masculine world of stock car racing- is
profoundly Republican…where Confederate flags flew from the car antennas and the air was
thick with the smell of grilling hamburgers, suntan oil and hops, young women in neon bikinis
paraded and posed to the accompaniment of varied shouts and noises of male approval”. (Poole
5) Women did not participate in the sport…they were there only to attract attention for the
drivers.
Unfortunately, racism would rear it’s ugly head again in stock car racing. In 1963,
Wendell Scott won the 200 mile race. However, officials were not sure how the audience would
react to a black man winning. So, they announced the winner as Buck Baker. After the audience
had cleared out, they claimed there was an error and that Scott had actually won. (Zirin 250)
Instead of trusting the people to accept the results, the officials took it upon themselves to take
the easy way out. They deceived the entire audience by lying about the winner of the race. Once
again proving that they saw NASCAR as a white man’s sport.
In 1972, William France Jr became the president of NASCAR. This change in leadership
brought about many changes to the circuit. France Jr pushed to get the sport from being a
regional sport to a worldwide one. This brought with it TV contracts and corporate
sponsorships.
With popularity in stock car races growing, drivers were starting to realize the income
they could get from winning these races. The big corporations began to sponsor the drivers by
paying them for advertising space on their cars. They would also pay the drivers for winning the
races.
Not only were the drivers starting to make money through sponsors, they were also
starting to receive proceeds from the sale of merchandise sold with their name, image or car
number on it…from lunch boxes to tee-shirts, hats to water bottles…anything you could think of
was being sold. The sale of this merchandise provided the southern working class with revenue.
“NASCAR has used the tools of modern consumerism to promote itself as just such a working
class phenomenon.” (Poole 5)
Today, NASCAR still has a reputation of being a regional sport. However, races are now
being broadcast in more than one hundred and fifty countries. Through marketing and sales, it
has become a multi-million dollar industry. Selling out at tracks all across the country, it has
definitely become more than a sport of the south. In recent news, there is currently a battle to
ban the Confederate flag from NASCAR. With more and more African American drivers
entering the circuit, it is considered offensive given its roots to the time of slavery.
Given the recent changes to NASCAR, we can see that it is becoming more than a
southern redneck sport. It is going to take more than a few alteration to change years of
tradition. The addition of more African American drivers and maybe even some women drivers
might do the trick. However, no matter how you look at it, stock car racing may always be
looked at as a “blue collar” southern sport. After all, it was just that for a very long time.

References

History.com. (November 13, 2009) “NASCAR founded.” History. www.history.com/this-day-in-

Poole, W. Scott. (n.d.) “White Knuckle Ride: Stock Cars and Class Identity in the Postmodern
South.” Popular Culture Association in the South.

Shipman, Tanner. (n.d.) “The Founding and History of NASCAR.” Speedway Digest.
www.speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/racing-news/14777-the-founding-and-history-of-
nascar.

Zirin, Dave. (2009). “A People’s History of Sports in the United States.” The New Press.