> I had no idea Nascar raced trucks. I thought they stood for National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, so I never thought they'd race anything but stock cars. Since apparently they either do or I don't know what stock cars are, what else do they race aside from cars? I'd love to see a NASCAR cement mixer race...
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> OneCoolCat

Cement mixer race? Hmmmmm. Good idea. It's just a matter of time.

But seriously, NASCAR at one time actually raced stock cars. I mean cars that were close to stock. But over time, the cars have become real race cars that only look like stock cars. The driving force in this evolution has always been safety. First they reinforced the wheels and put in seat belts. Before long there were roll cages and fuel cells. As safety issues lured them further away from stock, other modifications made them faster, and improved handling. They got so darned fast, they had to put a restrictor plate under the carburetor to slow them down on the faster tracks.

Originally they had the Grand National cars and a sportsman division. Grand National became Winston Cup and then the Nextel Cup and sportsman became Grand National and then Busch Grand National. But that wasn't enough. They needed another divison as a steping stone for wannabee drivers, and so they invented pickup truck races.

You guessed it. They only look like trucks.
There is a Nextel Cup car underneath.

What next? Let's hope it is cement mixers instead of Mini-Van races and Maxi-Van races and SUV races.

Interestingly, the truck division often attracts drivers on their way down as well as up. Last year's truck champion was Bobby Hamilton, who is about 50. He raced for years in the Cup division, then retired and took up truck racing.

It's a very complicate sport, but it you take the time to learn the nitty gritty, it's very entertaining.
Howard