A common misconception is that Richard Childress Racing " owns the rights " to the No. 3 in NASCAR competition ( fueled by the fact that Kevin Harvick's car has a little No. 3 as an homage to Earnhardt and the usage of the No. 3 on the Camping World Series truck of Ty Dillon ), but in fact no team owns the rights to this or any other number: However, according to established NASCAR procedures, RCR would have priority over other teams if and when the time came to reuse the number.

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing ( NASCAR ) is a family-owned and-operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events.

It also oversees NASCAR Local Racing, the Whelen Modified Tour, the Whelen All-American Series, and the NASCAR iRacing. com Series.

** NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series Racing

In what proved to be a temporary retirement, Gibbs pursued an interest in NASCAR by founding Joe Gibbs Racing.

Newman owned a NASCAR Winston Cup car, before selling it to Penske Racing, where it now serves as the # 12 car.

However, the network was eventually sold to News Corporation, which made it NASCAR-centric, and has since replaced the sports car related programming with either NASCAR programming ( in 2009, NASCAR purchased the Grand American Road Racing Association, which is an independent subsidiary ) or reality shows.

* Jack Roush, ( 1942 -), is the founder, CEO, and co-owner along with John Henry of Roush Fenway Racing, a NASCAR team headquartered in Concord, North Carolina, and is Chairman of the Board of Roush Enterprises.

At the end of the 2008 NASCAR season, Texaco / Havoline officially ended their sponsorship with NASCAR and Chip Ganassi Racing.

* Team Red Bull – a racing team competing in the U. S .- based stock car racing competition NASCAR Red Bull Racing Team competed in NASCAR beginning in 2007.

Villeneuve racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in early 2008. In a subsequent interview with Autosport magazine, Villeneuve's manager Craig Pollock confirmed that Villeneuve's Formula One career was over It was announced on August 24, 2007 that Villeneuve would run the remaining seven races in the Craftsman Truck Series driving a Toyota Tundra for Bill Davis Racing and undertake a full-time Sprint Cup schedule in 2008.

Villeneuve also had two starts in the 2009 NASCAR Nationwide Series, both for Braun Racing, with his best performance starting 6th and finishing 4th at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, again under wet conditions and the second time rain tires were used in a NASCAR event.

For 2011 Villeneuve agreed to take over for Brad Keselowski in the number 22 car for Penske Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for two races which Keselowski could not attend.

In 2001, a revised version of the GPL engine was used for NASCAR Racing 4.

The final incarnation of the GPL engine can be found in NASCAR Racing 2003 Season which was considered at the time to be the benchmark of motorsport simulation excellence, particularly with respect to the tire model.

More recently, the online subscription-based simulation iRacing, also designed by Kaemmer and built on the NASCAR Racing 2003 Season code base.

SKF currently sponsors Penske Racing in NASCAR.

The North Wilkesboro Speedway was the first NASCAR ( National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing ) track ; it held its first race on May 18, 1947 As noted above, Wilkes County native and resident Junior Johnson was one of the early superstars of NASCAR, as well as a legendary moonshiner.

Childress, who currently holds the rights from NASCAR to the No. 3, has placed a moratorium on using it.

It is generally believed that current NASCAR owners have agreed never to use the No. 3 in Sprint Cup competition again, although this is not official NASCAR policy.

NASCAR has 75 million fans who purchase over $ 3 billion annually in licensed products.

His father, Lee Petty, won the first Daytona 500 in 1959 and was also a 3 time NASCAR champion.

* June 19 – Glenn Dunnaway wins the inaugural NASCAR race at Charlotte Speedway, a 3 / 4 mile oval in Charlotte, North Carolina, but is disqualified due to illegal springs.

* July 3 – Richard Petty, seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion

Sports programming is also provided, usually on weekends ( albeit not every weekend year-round ), and most commonly between 12 – 4 or 12-8 p. m. on Sundays ( during football season, slightly less during NASCAR season ) and 3: 30 – 7 p. m. on Saturday afternoons ( during baseball season ).

** NASCAR Championship-David Pearson (# 3, Dodge )

Due to NASCAR changing the homologation rules which increased the minimum number of cars produced for the public from 500 to 3, 000 for a vehicle to qualify at NASCAR, the King Cobra project was abandoned by Ford.

In addition to NASCAR's top racing series, he has won 13 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series races, 7 American Speed Association ( ASA ) races, 3 IROC races, 2 Automobile Racing Club of America ( ARCA ) races, 2 NASCAR All-American Challenge Series events, 2 All Pro Racing Association races, a USAC race, and has competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona, a 24-hour sports car endurance race.

May 3, 1987 would become an infamous day in NASCAR history.

Robert Arthur " Bobby " Allison ( born December 3, 1937 ) is a former NASCAR Winston Cup driver and was named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers.

Bell was the grand marshal of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Dover International Speedway on June 3, 2007.

Auto Club Speedway ( formerly California Speedway ) is a two-mile ( 3 km ), low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in Fontana, California which has hosted NASCAR racing annually since 1997.

Also, in the small field of about a dozen cars, the share of NASCAR invitees grew over time, from just 3 drivers in the first season to 7 drivers from NASCAR-affiliated series in the last.

The new wall and fence were decidedly stronger, and could support the 3, 500 pound NASCAR stock cars.

Budweiser is the official beer of NHRA and was the official beer of NASCAR until 2007.

To this day, Earnhardt is the only driver in NASCAR Winston Cup history to follow a Rookie of the Year title with a NASCAR Winston Cup Championship the next season.

* 1948 – NASCAR is incorporated.

As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of Bill France, Sr. NASCAR is the largest sanctioning body of stock car racing in the United States.

NASCAR is second only to the National Football League amongst professional sports franchises in terms of television ratings in the United States.

Parma is the birthplace of world-renowned ecologist and soil scientist Dr. Robert E. Horton and NASCAR driver Brian Tyler.

Richard Lee Petty ( born July 2, 1937 ) is a former NASCAR driver who raced in the Strictly Stock / Grand National Era and the NASCAR Winston Cup Series.

" The King ", as he is nicknamed, is most well known for winning the NASCAR Championship seven times ( Dale Earnhardt is the only other driver to accomplish this feat ), winning a record 200 races during his career, winning the Daytona 500 a record seven times, and winning a record 27 races ( ten of them consecutively ) in the 1967 season alone.

Petty is a member of the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Richard's son, Kyle Petty, is also a well-known NASCAR driver.

Split screens are frequently used in motor racing, especially during safety car pit stops in the IndyCar Series and NASCAR, where four way splits are used, most often with three leading cars or trucks ' pit stops shown on the left and a shot of the pit exit ( where restart order is determined after pit stops ) on the right, with some featuring just four different cars or trucks making pit stops.

* 1950 – Darlington Raceway is the site of the inaugural Southern 500, the first 500-mile NASCAR race.

NASCAR is the world's largest governing body for stock car racing, and its Sprint Cup Series ( named for its sponsor, Sprint Nextel Corporation ) is the de facto premier series of stock car racing.