The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing or NASCAR was first organized in the year 1948 and has been an important part of automobile history ever since. This is an interesting series as the cars look like their regular road-going versions, except with sponsors' colours, decals, and stickers all over. In NASCAR, the carmakers tend to use their stock vehicles and swap a high-powered engine. Although these races might get a little intense due to drivers, not following regulations and finishes that may confuse the audience, these NASCAR cars and drivers are still looked up to today. Here we take a look at some of the most legendary cars to ever enter NASCAR.
The Chevy Impala is the best-selling Chevrolet car in terms of its road-legal version. There have been a million units of the Impala sold in a year. Chevy also has the most NASCAR wins in the history of the racing series itself. Some of the greatest NASCAR drivers such as Dale Sr., Dale Jr., and Jeff Gordan have all favoured the Chevy Impala.
By the year 1955, the Buick Regal had already had 63 wins in its name, however, it truly dominated NASCAR in the year 1981 with multiple racers such as Darrel Waltrip and Bobby Allison finishing in first place in their Buick Regals. In 1982 Buick still dominated NASCAR to such an extent that Ford made alterations to their Thunderbird while Chevy too had to upgrade their Monte Carlo just to stay in the competition.
Although the Chevy Monte Carlo had a number of wins, there was a point in time when for a fair number of years, it was Ford that dominated NASCAR. As a matter of fact, Ford actually won the NASCAR Manufacturers' Championship in a continuous stretch from the years 1963 to 1969. A number of drivers such as Dan Gurney and Fred Lorenzen all drove NASCAR in their Ford Galaxies. This machine was equipped with a huge 7.0 litre V8 engine in order to compete with the Hemi by Dodge. Although the Galaxies were controversial, they did bring a total sum of 199 wins for Ford.
For those who are unaware, yes, the Hudson Hornet is not just an animated movie character, but in fact was a real-life legend in the racing scene. The Hudson Hornet was debuted I the year 1951 by the Hudson Motor Company. The Hornet ended up winning a total of 66 races from the years 1952 to 1954. This in turn set a record that took years on end in order to break. In totality, the Hornet had 79 wins in its career.
The mid to late 50's truly belonged to Chrysler when it came to NASCAR. The driver Elmer Carl made consistent wins in the NASCAR races in the beautiful Chrysler 300B. Tim Flock, another NASCAR racer had a total of 18 race wins for the 1955 championship. This car was so powerful for its time that a driver was even forced to withdraw from the race after being accused of cheating even though nothing was proven.
Every car in its competition was obliterated by the Dodge Charger Daytona. The car was a two-door equipped with a huge 23-inch-tall rear wing which made it look as if it was about to take off. This is no surprise as NASA was a part of the making of this car. The Daytona was equipped with a 7.0 litre Hemi V8 and the 7.2 litre Magnum V8. In the year 1969 the Daytona clocked a top speed of 321 kmph. This in turn upset a lot of people who claimed this was an unfair advantage for the races. Unfortunately, the car was labelled too powerful of a machine to be permitted in NASCAR and was eventually banned.
