Not only was Strictly Stock the name of NASCAR’s premier division when it debuted with an eight-race schedule in 1949, but it was also the best way to describe the cars that defined the sport’s early years.
NASCAR mandated that cars competing in what is now known as the NASCAR Cup Series were to be stock production automobiles. However, in the interest of safety, competitors were allowed to use a belt to secure the driver’s side doors so they didn’t come open during races.
Doors were eventually bolted or welded shut, but this modification wasn’t permitted until 1965 when purpose-built racing chassis with roll bars became commonplace. These cars also included enhanced brakes, rear-end housings and spindles.
Holman Moody, Ford Motor Co.’s racing arm, started building complete race cars in 1956. Over the next decade, the cars in NASCAR’s premier series vastly improved. For around $10,000, anyone with the money could become a NASACAR team owner.
Tom Higgins was a longtime motorsports writer for the Asheville-Citizen Times and the Charlotte Observer.
Higgins covered his first NASCAR event on July 1, 1956, at the former Asheville-Weaverville Speedway. He once talked about how primitive the early cars of NASCAR’s Gen 1 Grand National Series were.
“I thought it was the wildest thing I had ever seen,” Higgins told the Asheville paper. “Those people were crazy.”
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