The National Stock Car Racing Association (NSRA/NSCRA) was a

sanctioning body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken g ...

for stock car racing that operated in the

Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...

during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Competing against several other sanctioning bodies, including

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

, NSCRA was considered to be the most significant challenge to NASCAR's dominance of the sport; however it proved incapable of competing with the larger sanction, and closed down midway through the 1951 racing season.

History

Founded in 1946 in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

by Sam Nunis and Weyman Milam,Pierce 2010, p. 93 the NSCRA was one of many small sanctioning bodies that appeared following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

to promote the fledgling sport of stock car racing. Participating, along with the U.S. Stock Car Drivers Association and Bill France's National Championship Stock Car Circuit, in a decision to declare a consensus national champion for stock cars in 1946, it remained a largely informal group, operating as a sanction for

modified stock car racing Modified stock car racing, also known as modified racing and modified, is a type of auto racing that involves purpose-built cars simultaneously racing against each other on oval tracks. First established in the United States after World War II, ...

, until O. Bruton Smith of

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

assumed responsibility for the group in 1948.Thompson 2006, p. 283 Smith announced that the sanction would operate a "Strictly Stock" championship starting in 1949; he offered lucrative

purse money A purse is a small bag that may refer to: * Coin purse, small pouch made for carrying coins * Handbag, in American English * Money bag * Wallet Purse may also refer to: * Purse (horse racing), the total amount of money paid out to the owners o ...

in an attempt to cherry-pick the stars of France's NASCAR, which had been founded in 1947 to replace the NCSCC and was running its first modified season in 1948. In direct competition, France announced his own Strictly Stock race, running it at

Charlotte Speedway Charlotte Speedway was the site of NASCAR's first Strictly Stock Series (now NASCAR Cup Series) race on June 19, 1949. The Daytona Beach Road Course held the first race sanctioned by NASCAR in 1948. The track was a few miles west of the NASCAR ...

in June 1949 - a direct poke in the eye to Smith and NSCRA, as Charlotte was Smith's hometown. The NSCRA Strictly Stock Championship ran for two years, with Ed Samples, a former moonshiner, winning the series title in 1949; Buddy Shuman, who had won the NSCRA modified title in 1948, took the series' stock car championship trophy in 1950. In late 1950, seeing as how the sport was still on a shaky basis and could not support two major sanctioning bodies, Smith and France agreed in principle to merge their respective organizations into a single, unified promotional body for the sport. However, Smith was drafted in January 1951 to fight in the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

as a

paratrooper A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during Worl ...

; in his absence, NSCRA's management, dominated by drivers, proved incapable of keeping the organization afloat amongst internal disputes, and Milam was forced to close down the sanctioning body during the summer of 1951.Pierce 2010, p. 136 Samples was leading the NSCRA's point standings at the time of the closure. The circuit's premier drivers, such as

Cotton Owens Everett "Cotton" Owens (May 21, 1924 – June 7, 2012) was a NASCAR driver. For five straight years (1957–61), Owens captured at least one Grand National Series win. Owens was known as the "King of the Modifieds" for his successes in modified ...

, and tracks, such as

Lakewood Speedway Lakewood Speedway was a race track located south of Atlanta, Georgia, in Lakewood, just north of the eastern arm of Langford Parkway (formerly Lakewood Freeway). The track held many kinds of races between 1919 and 1979, including events sanctione ...

, joined

following NSCRA's closure.

References

;Notes ;Citations ;Bibliography * * * * * * {{Portal bar, Sports, Georgia (U.S. state) Auto racing organizations in the United States Stock car racing Sports leagues in the United States Companies based in Atlanta 1948 establishments in the United States 1951 disestablishments in the United States Sports in the Southern United States Motorsport in Georgia (U.S. state) Sports governing bodies in the United States