Stock car racing: big cars, mostly ovals, and points for every stage.

What a stock car is

Britannica describes stock-car racing as a popular American form of the sport in which cars resembling standard commercial models race, usually on paved oval tracks. Wikipedia (secondary) notes that modern stock cars are purpose-built racing machines that only loosely resemble the production cars they are named after.

Ovals are no longer the whole story. Wikipedia's account of the 2026 NASCAR Cup season includes a street race at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego, won by Corey Heim, and says engine power was raised from 670 to 750 horsepower for short tracks and road courses that year.

Where it came from

Several sources link stock cars to Prohibition. Britannica says the sport probably began then, when people running illegal liquor modified ordinary cars to outrun the law, and dates organized stock-car racing to Langhorne, Pennsylvania, in 1939. The Saturday Evening Post adds that after repeal in 1933 those cars kept racing at informal local events. History.com reports historians' views that many early mechanics, owners and promoters had ties to illegal alcohol, though one author it cites puts the link more cautiously, so the scale of that connection is a matter of interpretation.

The sources disagree on NASCAR's founding date because two events are involved. In December 1947 Bill France Sr. brought drivers, owners and promoters together at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach to create a body that would standardise rules and run a championship, according to the Saturday Evening Post. Britannica dates NASCAR's founding to 1947; Jayski and the Saturday Evening Post date it to the incorporation on 21 February 1948. Jayski says the first NASCAR-sanctioned race ran on 15 February 1948 on the Daytona Beach beach-road course and was won by Red Byron. More is on our American racing history page.

NASCAR's series

Wikipedia (secondary) lists three national series:

• The Cup Series, the top level.
• The second-tier series, sponsored by Xfinity from 2015 to 2025 and renamed the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series from 2026.
• The Craftsman Truck Series.

The same source says NASCAR also sanctions regional and international series, including the Whelen Modified Tour, the ARCA Menards Series, and series in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Europe.

How a Cup race and season work

Stages and race points

Cup races in 2026 are split into three stages. FloRacing and NBC both say the top 10 at the end of the first two stages score bonus points, 10 for the leader down to 1. NBC says a race win now pays 55 points (up from 40), second 35 and third 34, with one point fewer for each place after that, for a maximum of 75 points in a race. The two outlets disagree on one detail: FloRacing says the fastest lap earns a bonus point, making the maximum 76, while NBC does not mention one.

The 2026 Chase

NBC reports that on 12 January 2026 NASCAR replaced its elimination-style playoffs with "The Chase". The top 16 drivers in points after 26 regular-season races qualify, with no automatic place for race winners and no eliminations. Points reset once when the 10-race Chase starts: the leader begins on 2,100 and each position below drops 5 points, down to 2,000 for 16th. Whoever has the most points after the final race is champion. Wikipedia adds that the separate regular-season championship was dropped.

Flags on an oval

Some flags mean something different in NASCAR from what they mean in road racing. Hendrick Motorsports explains that a yellow (caution) brings the field behind a pace car, that the white flag means one lap to go, and that a caution with the white flag out freezes the field and ends the race. Sources differ on the flag used at the end of a stage: Hendrick describes a checkered flag, RACER a green-and-white checkered flag. Our flags page compares the systems.

The Daytona 500 and the current season

Wikipedia (secondary) says the Daytona 500 was first held in 1959, is 200 laps of the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway, and has opened the Cup season since 1982. History.com records that Johnny Beauchamp was first declared winner of that 1959 race before Lee Petty was confirmed three days later with the help of news photographs. Fox Sports reports that Tyler Reddick won the 2026 Daytona 500 on 15 February 2026 for 23XI Racing.

NBC Washington reports that Kyle Larson won the 2025 Cup title, his second. The 2026 Chase was still in progress as of October 2026. NASCAR.com reports that Reddick won at Phoenix on 18 October 2026, and Bleacher Report's standings after that race had Larson leading Christopher Bell by five points with three races left, ending at Homestead-Miami on 8 November. See NASCAR for the latest.

For the record books, NASCAR lists Richard Petty with the most Cup wins (200), and NASCAR and Guinness World Records give the record for titles as seven, shared by Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson.

Safety changes

Several of NASCAR's safety rules followed fatal accidents. The AP reports that after four drivers died in 1964 and 1965, NASCAR introduced six-point harnesses, tyre inner liners and fire-retardant uniforms. Dale Earnhardt died on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500; the AP calls him the fourth national-series driver killed in nine months, while SCCA says he was the fourth killed by a basilar skull fracture within 14 months. The Washington Times reported that in October 2001 NASCAR required a HANS or Hutchens head-and-neck device in its top three series. Our safety history page has the wider story.

How people get into it

For adults, racing schools offer a structured first drive. Skip Barber says the oval version of its Three Day Racing School uses a Pro Late Model stock car. This page does not cover local short-track classes; the track and sanctioning body near you set those rules. The general steps to a competition licence are on our licences and schools page.