NASCAR Cup Series

History

Strictly Stock and Grand National

In 1949, NASCAR introduced the Strictly Stock division, after sanctioning Modified and Roadster division races in 1948. Eight races were run on seven dirt ovals and on the Daytona Beach beach/street course.

The first NASCAR "Strictly Stock" race was held at Charlotte Speedway on June 19, 1949. Jim Roper was declared the winner of that race after Glenn Dunaway was disqualified for having altered the rear springs on his car; the first series champion was Red Byron. The division was renamed "Grand National" for the 1950 season, reflecting NASCAR's intent to make the sport more professional and prestigious. It retained this name until 1971. The 1949 Strictly Stock season is regarded in NASCAR's record books as the first season of GN/Cup history. Martinsville Speedway is the only track on the 1949 schedule that remains on the current schedule.

Rather than having a fixed schedule of one race per weekend with most entrants appearing at every event, the Grand National schedule has included over sixty events in some years. Often there were two or three races on the same weekend and occasionally two races on the same day in different states.

In the early years, most Grand National races were held on dirt-surfaced short oval tracks that ranged in lap length from under a quarter mile to over a half mile, or on dirt fairgrounds ovals usually ranging from a half mile to a mile in lap length. Of the first 221 Grand National races, 198 were run on dirt tracks. Darlington Raceway, opened in 1950, was the first completely paved track on the circuit over one mile (1.6 km) long. In 1959, when Daytona International Speedway was opened, the schedule still had more races on dirt racetracks than on paved ones. In the 1960s as superspeedways were built and old dirt tracks were paved, the number of races run on dirt tracks was reduced.

The last NASCAR Grand National race on a dirt track (until 2021) was held on September 30, 1970, at the half mile State Fairgrounds Speedway in Raleigh, North Carolina. Richard Petty won that race in a Plymouth that had been sold by Petty Enterprises to Don Robertson and rented back by Petty Enterprises for the race.

Winston Cup

Between 1971 and 2003, NASCAR's premier series was sponsored by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company cigarette brand Winston, dubbing it the Winston Cup Series. The series was originally called the Winston Cup Grand National Series before "Grand National" was dropped in 1986. In 1971, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act banned television advertising of cigarettes. As a result, tobacco companies began to sponsor sporting events as a way to spend their excess advertising dollars and to circumvent the ban. RJR's sponsorship became more controversial in the wake of the 1998 Tobacco Industry Settlement that sharply restricted avenues for tobacco advertising, including sports sponsorships.

The changes that resulted from RJR's involvement in the series as well as from the reduction in schedule from 48 to 31 races per year established 1972 as the beginning of NASCAR's "modern era". The season was made shorter, and the points system was modified several times during the next four years. Races on dirt tracks and on oval tracks shorter than 250 miles (400 kilometres) were removed from the schedule and transferred to the short-lived NASCAR Grand National East Series, and the remaining races had a minimum prize money of $30,000. NASCAR's founder, Bill France Sr., turned over control of NASCAR to his oldest son, Bill France Jr. In August 1974, France Jr. asked series publicist Bob Latford to design a points system with equal points being awarded for all races regardless of length or prize money. This system ensured that the top drivers would have to compete in all the races in order to become the series champion. This system remained unchanged from 1975 until the Chase for the Championship was instituted in 2004.

Since 1982, the Daytona 500 has been the first non-exhibition race of the year.

ABC Sports aired partial or full live telecasts of Grand National races from Talladega, North Wilkesboro, Darlington, Charlotte, and Nashville in 1970. Because these events were perceived as less exciting than many Grand National races, ABC abandoned its live coverage. Races were instead broadcast, delayed and edited, on the ABC sports variety show Wide World of Sports.

In 1979, the Daytona 500 became the first stock car race that was nationally televised live from flag to flag on CBS. The leaders going into the last lap, Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison, wrecked on the backstretch while dicing for the lead, allowing Petty to pass them both for the win. Immediately, Yarborough, Allison, and Allison's brother Bobby were engaged in a fistfight on national television. This underlined the drama and emotion of the sport and increased its broadcast marketability. The race coincided with a major snowstorm along the United States' eastern seaboard, successfully introducing the sport to a captive audience.

Nextel and Sprint

During the 2002 season, R.J. Reynolds notified NASCAR leadership that they would terminate their title sponsorship prematurely at the conclusion of the 2003 season. NASCAR negotiated a contract with Nextel, a telecommunications company to replace Winston, and in 2004 the series became known as the Nextel Cup Series.

The 2006 merger between Sprint and Nextel resulted in the Cup Series being renamed the Sprint Cup, beginning with the 2008 season.

The Sprint Cup trophy was designed by Tiffany & Co. and is silver, with a pair of checkered flags in flight.

By 2009, the popularity boom of the 1990s had ended, and television ratings over the previous ten years had become more or less stagnant. Some long-time fans have criticized the series for losing its traditional appeal because of abandoning venues in the southeastern United States in favor of newer markets. They have also voiced discontent over Toyota's presence in the series. Japanese telecommunications corporation SoftBank acquired Sprint in July 2013. While NASCAR was suspicious of diversity promotion and aware of the negative implications of the redneck image, it also recognized the opportunities to expand the sport. NASCAR's CEO Brian France has become a prime target for criticism among fans during his tenure from 2003 to 2018.

In 2016, NASCAR announced the creation of a charter system (in association with the Race Team Alliance, formed in 2014), which would guarantee 36 teams' entry to all 36 races. Eligibility for a charter would depend on a team's attempts to qualify for every race within the previous three seasons. In conjunction with this rule, NASCAR also reduced the size of the Cup field to 40 cars.

Along with the change in title sponsorship for the series, the 2004 season also introduced a new system for determining the series champion, influenced by the system used in the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series.

Originally known as the Chase for the Nextel Cup (or simply "The Chase", and later changed to Sprint branding), the ten highest-scoring drivers and teams (plus ties) in the first 26 races of the season became eligible to win the championship by competing in a playoff held within the final ten races. This number was increased to 12 teams in 2007. The Chase participants had their points increased to a level mathematically unattainable by anyone outside this field (roughly 1,800 points ahead of the first driver outside the Chase). From the inaugural Chase in 2004 to the 2006 Chase, the drivers were seeded based on points position at the end of the regular season, with first place starting with 5,050 points and tenth place starting with 5,005. From 2007 to 2010, the points totals of each driver who made the Chase were reset to 5,000 points, plus ten additional points for each race victory during the first 26 races. Points would still be awarded as usual during the affected races. The driver leading in points after the 36th race would be declared the champion.

Monster Energy

The title sponsorship with Sprint ended after the 2016 season. On December 1, 2016, NASCAR announced it had reached an agreement with Monster Energy to become the new sponsor of NASCAR's premier series. On December 19, 2016, NASCAR announced the new name for the series, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series as well as the new series logo and new NASCAR logo. On April 11, 2018, Monster Energy announced an extension of their sponsorship of the series through the end of the 2019 season.

In 2017, stage racing was introduced. Races were broken up into three stages, four in the case of the NASCAR Cup Series' longest race, the Coca-Cola 600. A stage consists of normal green flag racing followed by a stoppage on a designated lap signified by the waving of a green and white checkered flag, then a yellow flag. The top-10 finishers in each of the first two stages are awarded bonus championship points, 10 points to the winner, 9 points for the 2nd place car, down to 1 point for the 10th place car. The points earned are added to a driver/owner's regular season points total, while the winner of the stage receives an additional point that is added to their point total, after the reset, if they get into the NASCAR playoffs. Stage lengths vary by track, but the first two stages usually combine to equal about half of the race. The final stage (which still pays out championship points to all drivers) usually equals the other half. The regular season points championship is awarded to the driver who scored the most points in the first 26 races (regular season). This championship does not award any bonus points to the winning driver. Otherwise, the points system and playoff format remained the same.

The MENCS trophy was in the form of a chalice that stood at three feet tall and weighed 68 lbs. Made of machined aluminum and taking over 300 hours of craftsmanship, the trophy's exterior was decorated with the outlines of all 23 NASCAR Cup Series tracks. The cup portion was said to hold approximately 600 ounces of liquids, or 37 cans of Monster Energy.

NASCAR Cup Series

Beginning with the 2020 season NASCAR's top level of competition became known as the NASCAR Cup Series. As part of a tiered sponsorship model, Busch Beer, Coca-Cola, GEICO, and Xfinity became the Premier Partners of the series, with Coca-Cola also assuming naming rights of the regular season trophy. In 2024, GEICO left as a premier partner, leaving NASCAR with 3 premier partners in 2025. Freeway Insurance joined as a premier partner in 2026.

The MENCS trophy design was retained under the new series name, though it was renamed the Bill France Cup.

Drivers' Championship

The NASCAR Cup Series Drivers' Championship is awarded by the Chairman of NASCAR to the most successful Cup Series driver over a season, as determined by a points system based on race results and victories. First awarded in 1949 to Red Byron, 32 different drivers have won the Championship. The first driver to win multiple Championships was Herb Thomas in 1951 and 1953, while the record for the most Championships, seven, is shared by Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson. Johnson has the record for most consecutive Championships; he won five Championships from 2006 to 2010. So far every Champion has originated from the United States.

Owners' Championship

The Cup Series Owner's Championship operates in the same manner as the Driver's Championship, except that points are awarded to each individual car. If an owner enters more than one car, each car is viewed and scored as a separate entity. The points in the Owners Championship is identical to the Drivers' list, with one minor exception: Drivers who are not eligible to earn points toward the Drivers' title can still earn points toward the Owners' Championship. An example of this occurred in the first race under the current points system, the 2011 Daytona 500. Under another rule newly implemented for the 2011 season, drivers are only allowed to earn drivers' points in one of NASCAR's three national series. Trevor Bayne, who won the race, did not earn any drivers' points because he chose to run for the Nationwide Series championship. However, he earned 47 owner's points for Wood Brothers Racing (43 base points, three bonus points for the win, and one bonus point for leading a lap).

Before a major change to the points system was implemented in 2011, there was a slightly different addition to the system of allocating owner's points. If more than 43 cars attempted to qualify for a race, owner's points were awarded to each car in the following manner: the fastest non-qualifier (in essence, 44th position) received 31 points, three points fewer than the car in the 43rd position. If more than one car did not qualify, owners' points continued to be assigned in the manner described, decreasing by three for each position. Under the post-2010 point system, only cars that actually start in a given race earn owner's points.

There is a separate "Chase for the Championship" for the owners' points.

A 2005 rule change in NASCAR's three national series, revoked from 2013 onward, affects how the owner's points are used. Through the 2012 season, the top 35 (NASCAR Cup Series) or top 30 (other series) full-time teams in owner points are awarded exemptions for the next race, guaranteeing them a position in that race. These points determine who is in and who is out of the next race and have become crucial since the exemption rule was changed to its current format. At the end of each season, the top 35 contenders in owner's points are also locked into the first five races of the next season.

Beginning in 2013, the rules reverted to a system more similar to the pre-2005 rules. In the NASCAR Cup Series, the first 36 places in the field are determined strictly by qualifying speed. The next six places are awarded on owner points, with the final place reserved for a past Series Champion. If the final exemption is not used because all past Champions are already in the field, it will pass to another car based on the number of owner points.

Manufacturers' Championship

A Manufacturer's Championship is awarded each year, although the Driver's Championship is considered more prestigious. In the past, manufacturer's championships were prestigious because of the number of manufacturers involved, and the manufacturer's championship was a major marketing tool. In the Xfinity Series, the championship is known as the Bill France Performance Cup.

Up to the 2013 season, points were scored in a 1960–1990 Formula One system, with the winner's manufacturer scoring nine points, six for the next manufacturer, four for the manufacturer third among makes, three for the fourth, two for the fifth, and one point for the sixth positioned manufacturer. This meant that if Chevrolets placed first through tenth in a given race and a Ford was 11th and a Dodge 12th, Chevrolet earned 9 points, Ford 6 and Dodge 4. Starting in 2014, NASCAR changed the system to mimic the Owner's Championship. Under this system, each manufacturer's best finishing representative effectively earned them the same number of points as that team earned, including any bonus points from leading a lap or winning the event.

Representation

In NASCAR's earliest years, there was a diverse array of machinery, with little support from the car companies themselves, but by the mid-1960s, participation was exclusively American manufacturers with factory support. Chrysler, Ford and General Motors were the primary, if not only, competitors for much of NASCAR's history. Plymouth, while somewhat successful in the 1960s with the Hemi, never won a Manufacturers Championship until Ford pulled out of racing in the early 1970s. GM was still using four different brands in NASCAR in 1991, but within three years, Buick and Oldsmobile were gone. Pontiac survived until 2004, leaving only Chevrolet. 2007 saw the first new brand since 1971, when Japanese manufacturer Toyota joined. Chrysler's Dodge brand returned after a 15-year hiatus in 2001, but departed after 2012, leaving just Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota.

Chevrolet has been the most successful manufacturer as of 2023, with 851 race wins and 42 manufacturers championships. Ford ranks second with 728 victories and 17 manufacturers championships. Dodge is third in wins with 217 and two manufacturers championships (albeit no longer in NASCAR), Plymouth fourth with 191 with one manufacturer championship (albeit no longer in NASCAR), Toyota fifth with 180 wins and three manufacturers championships, and Pontiac sixth with 154 and one manufacturer championship (albeit no longer in NASCAR).

Cup cars

Cup Series cars (often called "Cup cars") adhere to a front engine rear-wheel-drive design. A roll cage serves as a space frame chassis and is covered by a composite carbon fiber body. They have a closed cockpit, fenders, a rear spoiler, and an aerodynamic splitter. Fielding a car for one season usually costs $10–20 million. Each team may build its own cars and engines (per NASCAR's specifications) or purchase cars and engines from other teams.

The cars are powered by EFI V8 engines since 2012 after 62 years using carburetion as engine fuel feed with compacted graphite iron blocks and pushrod valvetrains actuating two-valves per cylinder, and are limited to 358 cubic inches' (about 5.8 liters) displacement. However, modern technology has allowed power outputs near or over 900 horsepower (670 kW) in unrestricted form; while retaining the same basic engine design. In fact, before NASCAR instituted the gear rule, Cup engines were capable of operating more than 10,000 rpm. A NASCAR Cup Series engine with the maximum bore of 4.185 inches (106 millimeters) and stroke of 3.25 inches (83 millimeters) at 9,000 rpm has a mean piston speed of 80.44 fps (24.75 m/s). Contemporary Cup engines run 9,800 rpm, 87.59 fps (26.95 m/s), at the road course events, on Pocono Raceway's long front stretch, and at Martinsville Speedway (a .526-mile short-track). At the backbone 1.5- to 2.0-mile tri-oval tracks of NASCAR, the engines produce well over 850 hp running 9,200–9,400 rpm for 500 miles, 600 mi for the Coca-Cola 600 Charlotte race. The current NASCAR Cup engines curb weight is roughly at 575 lb (261 kg).

The front suspension is a double wishbone design, while the rear suspension was previously a two-link live axle design utilizing trailing arms until the 2022 debut of the NASCAR Next Gen Car at the Busch Lite Clash at the Coliseum, which featured the debut of the cars in their first competition and feature fully independent front and rear suspensions with double wishbones and adjustable inboard shocks. Brake rotors must be made of magnetic cast iron or steel and may not exceed 12.72 inches (32.3 centimeters) in diameter. The only aerodynamic components on the vehicles are the front splitter, spoiler, NACA ducts in the windows only, and side skirts. While the use of rear diffusers, vortex generators, canards, wheel well vents, hood vents, and undertrays was strictly prohibited into the Gen 6 era, the now-current Next Gen car features a rear diffuser similar to the diffusers used in NASCAR sister organization IMSA's GT Daytona class. While the cars may reach speeds of about 200 mph (320 km/h) on certain tracks, Russ Wicks drove a modified Dodge Charger stock car, built to NASCAR's specifications, 244.9 mph (394.1 km/h) during a speed record attempt at the Bonneville Salt Flats in October 2007.

Evolution of Cup cars

When the series was formed under the name strictly stock, the cars were just that: production vehicles with no modifications allowed. The term stock car implied that the vehicles racing were unmodified street cars. Drivers would race with factory installed bench seats and AM radios still in the cars. To prevent broken glass from getting on the race track, windows would be rolled down, external lights would be removed or taped over, and side-view mirrors would be removed. The 1957 fuel injected 150 model Chevrolet (known as "the black widow") was the first car to be outlawed by NASCAR. The 1957 Chevrolet won the most races, with 59 wins, more than any car to ever race in the cup series. Before the mid-1960s, cars were typically based on full sized cars such as the Chevrolet Bel Air and Ford Galaxie.

In 1965, modified chassis came to the sport. Mid-size cars including the Ford Fairlane and Plymouth Belvedere were adopted and soon became the norm. NASCAR once enforced a homologation rule that at various times stated that at least 500 cars had to be produced, or as many as one car for every make's dealership in the nation had to be sold to the general public to allow it to be raced. Eventually, cars were made expressly for NASCAR competition, including the Ford Torino Talladega, which had a rounded nose, and the Dodge Charger Daytona and Plymouth Superbird which had a rear wing raised above roof level and a shark shaped nose-cap which enabled race speeds of exactly 200 mph. The Ford-based Mercury Spoiler powered by a Ford Boss 429 engine was timed at 199.6 mph. Beginning in 1971, NASCAR rewrote the rules to effectively force the Ford and Chrysler specialty cars (nicknamed the Aero Warriors) out of competition by limiting them to 305ci (5.0L). The cars affected by this rule include the Ford Talladega, Mercury Spoiler II, Dodge Charger 500, Dodge Charger Daytona and the Plymouth Superbird. This rule was so effective in limiting performance that only one car that season ever attempted to run in this configuration.

Beginning in August 1970, NASCAR handicapped engines over 366 cubic inches (6.0 liters) with a restrictor plate. NASCAR phased in a rule to lower the maximum engine displacement from 430 cubic inches (7.0 liters) to 366 cubic inches (6.0 liters). In 1974, maximum engine displacement was increased from 430 cubic inches to 433 cubic inches. In 1975, NASCAR reduced the maximum small block engine displacement from 366 cubic inches (6.0 liters) to its present 358 cubic inches (5.9 liters). The transition was not complete until 1977 and coincided with American manufacturers ending factory support of racing and the 1973 oil crisis.

Setup

The automobiles' suspension, brakes, and aerodynamic components are also selected to tailor the cars to different racetracks. A car that understeers is said to be "tight", or "pushing", causing the car to keep going up the track with the wheel turned all the way left, while one that oversteers is said to be "loose" or "free", causing the back end of the car to slide around, which can result in the car spinning out if the driver is not careful. The adjustment of front and rear aerodynamic downforce, spring rates, track bar geometry, brake proportioning, the wedge (also known as cross-weight), changing the camber angle, and changing the air pressure in the tires can all change the distribution of forces among the tires during cornering to correct for handling problems. Recently, coil bind setups have become popular among teams.

These characteristics are also affected by tire stagger (tires of different circumference at different positions on the car, the right rear having the most influence in left turns) and rubber compounds used in tire construction. These settings are determined by NASCAR and Goodyear engineers and may not be adjusted by individual teams.

Changing weather conditions may also affect a car's handling. In a long race, it is sometimes advantageous to prepare a car to handle well at the end of an event while surrendering the advantage of speed at the start. On oval races, rain forces a race to be halted immediately. NASCAR had developed rain tires for Cup Series road racing as early as late 1990s, but initially abandoned them because there at the time were not enough road courses on the schedule to justify the cost of making more tires to replace them as they aged. The first in-race use of rain tires in the Cup Series were at the 2020 Bank of America Roval 400 and the 2021 Texas Grand Prix. Prior to these, a 1956 race at Road America was held in rain; Tim Flock won the race.

Cup tracks

Presently, the NASCAR Cup Series is held mainly in eastern states, with only eight tracks located west of the Mississippi River. Cup Series races are not conducted on standardized tracks; the 2025 season included 30 races at oval tracks and 6 at road courses. The lap length of the oval tracks vary from .526 miles (0.847 km) at Martinsville Speedway to 2.66 miles (4.28 km) at Talladega Superspeedway. The majority of the oval tracks are paved with asphalt, while 3 tracks are wholly or partially paved with concrete. Although the series historically raced on dirt tracks, it ceased to do so for more than 50 years after the 1970 season. In 2021, dirt racing returned to the schedule with a March event at Bristol Motor Speedway.

While some tracks are true ovals, such as Bristol Motor Speedway, over half the tracks currently in Cup competition are a form of tri-oval. Other configurations include Darlington Raceway's characteristic uneven "egg" shape, the triangular Pocono Raceway, and the rectangle of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

While NASCAR is known for primarily running counter-clockwise on oval tracks, Sonoma Raceway, Watkins Glen International, and Coronado Street Course, are complex road courses which are raced clockwise. The series' first road course event was held in 1954, at Linden Airport in New Jersey. Since 1963, the series has raced on at least one road course every year.

Courses have a wide range of banking in the corners. New Hampshire Motor Speedway, with 7 degrees of banking, has the flattest corners, while the steepest banking is Talladega Superspeedway's 33 degrees. Tracks also vary in amount of banking on the straightaways, from entirely flat on many courses to 9 degrees at Dover International Speedway.

Race speeds vary widely depending on the track. The fastest track is Talladega Superspeedway, where the record average speed is 188.354 mph (303.126 km/h) and the record qualifying lap is 212.809 mph (342.483 km/h), set by Bill Elliott in 1987. The record stands unlikely to be broken, as restrictor plates were made mandatory at superspeedways in 1988 to reduce speeds, and the plates were then replaced in 2019 by tapered spacers which still reduced enough horsepower to prevent cars from going beyond speed of 205 mph. The slowest tracks are Sonoma Raceway, a road course with a record average speed of only 83.6 mph (134.5 km/h) and a record qualifying lap of 99.3 mph (159.8 km/h), and Martinsville Speedway, a short, nearly flat "paper clip" oval, with a record average speed of 82.2 mph (132.3 km/h) and a record qualifying lap of 99.9 mph (160.8 km/h). The average speed of a race is determined by dividing the winner's race time (from the waving of the green flag to the waving of the checkered flag, including laps spent under caution) by the distance of the race. Time elapsed during red flag periods is not included in the calculation of the average speed.