Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When was NASCAR formed?
France had the notion that people would enjoy watching "stock cars" race. Drivers were frequently victimized by unscrupulous promoters who would leave events with all the money before drivers were paid. In 1947, he decided this racing would not grow without a formal sanctioning organization, standardized rules, regular schedule, and an organized championship. On December 14, 1947, France began talks with other influential racers and promoters at the Ebony Bar at the Streamline Hotel at Daytona Beach, Florida, that ended with the formation of NASCAR on February 21, 1948.[11]
In the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, there are only 32 competitors, so the last-place driver will receive five points. Teams must submit an entry form to NASCAR 13 days prior to the event with the race's entry fee, or they are deemed ineligible for points.
When NASCAR was first formed by France in 1948 to regulate stock car racing in the U.S., there was a requirement that any car entered be made entirely of parts available to the general public through automobile dealers. Additionally, the cars had to be models that had sold more than 500 units to the public. This is referred to as "homologation". In NASCAR's early years, the cars were so "stock" that it was commonplace for the drivers to drive themselves to the competitions in the car that they were going to run in the race. While automobile engine technology had remained fairly stagnant in World War II, advanced aircraft piston engine development had provided a great deal of available data, and NASCAR was formed just as some of the improved technology was about to become available in production cars. Until the advent of the Trans-Am Series in 1967, NASCAR homologation cars were the closest thing that the public could buy that was actually very similar to the cars that were winning national races.
He resumed racing after he returned home from the war. Lewallen attended an October 12, 1946 meeting that formed NASCAR. The meeting was held at the Rex Hotel on Peachtree Street in Atlanta Georgia. Around twelve people attended, including Bill France Sr., Red Vogt, and Raymond Parks. Bill France offered him a chance to "buy into NASCAR" for $500.00 ($ when adjusted for inflation) but Lewallen turned him down, saying "it would never amount to anything".
NASCAR has always in the past had a negative view of and has resisted union like organizations and the formation of them. In 1969, NASCAR stars formed the PDA (Professional Driver Association), led by Richard Petty. Shortly after a boycott of the 1969 Talladega 500 over track conditions the union disbanded. NASCAR pioneers Curtis Turner and Tim Flock were banned from the sport after trying to form a union among the drivers and get the Teamsters to represent them.
The original show aired nightly and replaced the recently cancelled weekly show "Inside NASCAR" that had aired on TNN until late 2000 when NASCAR began a new television contract.
Fox NASCAR, also known as NASCAR on Fox, is the branding used for broadcasts of NASCAR races produced by Fox Sports and have aired on the Fox network in the United States since 2001. Speed, a motorsports-focused cable channel owned by Fox, began broadcasting NASCAR-related events in February 2002, with its successor Fox Sports 1 taking over Fox Sports' cable event coverage rights when that network replaced Speed in August 2013. Throughout its run, Fox's coverage of NASCAR has won thirteen Emmy Awards.
When "Totally NASCAR" was launched, NASCAR allowed it access to race highlights. At the same time, "RPM 2Night", an established show on ESPN2, was denied them. This was done by classifying "Totally" as a news program, and "RPM" as a magazine show. In response, ESPN did not allow Totally NASCAR to use footage from any race carried by ESPN or ABC prior to 2001 or footage from NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events, which were carried on ESPN2.
In 2003, France was named NASCAR's Chairman of the Board and CEO by his father, who preceded him. One of his first actions was to create a new rule that drivers were no longer allowed to race back to the start/finish line when under caution. After assuming control of NASCAR, France negotiated a title sponsorship from Sprint Nextel. He also introduced the Chase for the Sprint Cup over the transition period, receiving a $4.5 billion television contract for the initial ten race seasons, in addition to a later multibillion-dollar deal with NBC. Part of the Chase was to award more points to significant or "spectacular" wins instead of consistent winning, as NASCAR had previously done, introducing it as a form of "post-season" for the sport. He also made an effort to expand the audience base of NASCAR to minorities, and allowed Toyota vehicles to begin competing on the NASCAR circuit. He has also overseen NASCAR during a period of ratings drops, as well as attendance going down 15% over the period of his tenure, despite record television deals.
The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series formed the Lady Cup, a championship system for female drivers in 2014. In 2016, a record 18 different women started a race in one of NASCAR's touring series. Julia Landauer was the most successful within her respective series, finishing 4th in points in the K&N Pro Series West with seven top-five finishes in fourteen races. In 2018, Hailie Deegan became the first woman to win a NASCAR touring series race in roughly three decades. 
In 1968, Bud Moore took his Cougars NASCAR racing in the newly formed Grand American series. Star driver Tiny Lund dominated the series and took the championship. After the Cougar changed to the Thunderbird platform in 1974, the bodystyle was raced in NASCAR. The Wood Brothers Racing team with David Pearson and later Neil Bonnett was very successful with the car and scored a number of victories until the bodystyle became ineligible following the 1980 season. The next year (1981) saw the previous Cougar teams switch to the Thunderbird when NASCAR mandated the smaller (110-inch-wheelbased) cars, though oddly the Thunderbirds had to have their wheel bases stretched 6 inches, as the production cars wheelbase was only 104 inches.
The 2018 race produced the closest finish in any of NASCAR's top three series, when Tyler Reddick edged Elliott Sadler by 0.0004 seconds, making it the closest finish in NASCAR history. Since NASCAR scoring and timing does not measure beyond thousands of a second, the margin of victory was officially listed as 0.000 seconds (with video review which declared Reddick the winner by less than three inches). Analysis after the race by NASCAR timing and scoring officials placed Reddick's margin of victory at 0.0004 seconds.
The TNT–NBC partnership broke off when NBC chose not to bid for the NASCAR contract when it expired in 2006.
Heidelberg held the seventh event in the first season of NASCAR's Strictly Stock series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series). Lee Petty, father of NASCAR's winningest driver Richard Petty, won his first NASCAR race at the track. Petty beat local driver Dick Linder by five laps. Sara Christian finished fifth in that first race, and that was the highest finish by a woman driver in the top level of the NASCAR racing until March 5, 2011, when Danica Patrick finished 4th in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
On November 16, 2004, CASCAR announced it had entered a multi-year operational and marketing agreement with NASCAR, after NASCAR had formed NASCAR Canada earlier in the year.
During 1996, NASCAR expanded its brand into several new entertainment areas. The NASCAR Online website went live during the year, while the first four NASCAR Thunder stores, operated in conjunction with Gaylord Entertainment, were opened. In addition, the NASCAR Racing Online Series, based on Papyrus's "NASCAR Racing 2" game, was formed using the Total Entertainment Network system.
As Neil began winding down his responsibilities at The Game, friend and founder of Realtree Outdoor Products, Bill Jordan introduced Neil to Tommy Allison who was the cousin and business manager for NASCAR driver Davey Allison. Davey and Tommy were looking for someone to help them with upgrading their licensed merchandise, which was primarily sold at NASCAR races. Over the next few months, Neil, Tommy, Davey and Bill talked and discussed the many opportunities available within NASCAR. By January 1993, Neil had decided retirement was not for him and formed A-Star promotions. The primary purpose of A-Star was to design, manage and sell all of the merchandise for the Davey Allison / Texaco Havoline racing team. This included everything from apparel to bumper stickers and miscellaneous souvenirs. The combination of Neil’s experience in importing merchandise, Davey’s success and fan following in NASCAR and the business management of Tommy Allison and Bill Jordan proved to be an instant success. When Davey’s merchandise began to show up at the races, other drivers and teams wanted to know where they could also get merchandise. The idea to form a separate company was born.
In 2010, NASCAR officially sanctioned its first sim racing eSports series, partnering with iRacing to form the NASCAR iRacing.com Series. This sim racing series is made of up of five "Amateur Series" divisions, the NASCAR iRacing.com Pro Series, and the PEAK Antifreeze NASCAR iRacing Series (NPAiS), one of iRacing's World Championship Series. Each year, the champion of the NASCAR iRacing.com World Championship Series is invited to NASCAR's Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway to receive $10,500 prize money and NASCAR championship trophy at the track.
NASCAR Nation was a program on the Speed Channel, which aired Monday nights, discussing the lifestyle of NASCAR drivers when they are not on the track. It was cancelled after the 2005 season.
NASCAR Live! was an American motorsport television program that originally aired on Speed. Beginning in 2013, the program began airing on Fox Sports 1 to fill in the gaps between qualifying and practice. The show was hosted mostly by John Roberts. When the program aired on Speed, the same crew that was used for "NASCAR Live!" was also used for shows such as "NASCAR Victory Lane" and "NASCAR RaceDay". In 2015, the program was discontinued as "NASCAR Live!" and began airing as part of "NASCAR Race Hub".
NASCAR 2001 was the final game that featured Dale Earnhardt as a regular full-time driver, prior to his death in the 2001 Daytona 500 (Earnhardt would reappear in "NASCAR SimRacing" with his 1999 car, in "NASCAR Thunder 2003" as the result of a cheat code, and in "NASCAR 07" as an unlockable Chase Plate). Johnny Benson is absent from this game, while it marked the first EA NASCAR game appearances of Jimmy Spencer, Jerry Nadeau, and Elliott Sadler. The drivers Michael Waltrip, Kenny Irwin Jr., Richard Petty and Adam Petty do not participate in any of the races as computer opponents; they will appear only when selected by the player.
NASCAR partnered with American Medical Response to form a traveling medical team for the series. Additionally, NASCAR has expanded the concussion protocol which will see drivers involved in accidents undergo additional concussion testing before being allowed to return to the race track.
The Grand American Road Racing Association (Grand-Am) was a sanctioning body of sports car racing. While it was founded independently of NASCAR by several members of the France family, NASCAR took over Grand-Am, but allows it to operate autonomously. The series merged with the American Le Mans Series in 2014 to form the United SportsCar Championship.
"NASCAR '99" is the second game relating in EA Sports NASCAR series of video games. The game features thirty-one of the drivers from the 1998 Winston Cup Series season and six legendary drivers. The game also includes seventeen different NASCAR race tracks, including Atlanta Motor Speedway, Sears Point, and Michigan International Speedway. Furthermore, the game includes instructions from a crew chief, such as when to make a pit stop or when cars are around the player.
When NASCAR's new broadcasting rights contract was signed in 1999, which included FOX, FX, and NBC, TBS was to keep its rights to NASCAR by serving as NBC's cable partner. The deal was to begin with the 2001 NASCAR season.