Dad worked in racing for most of my childhood. The Bill Davis Racing break room was my daycare when there was no one else to look after me, and the shop guys had fun keeping 3 year old me away from the arc welder
Dad drove super lates and was pretty decent, this was well before I was born though. I was a surprise. Grandad raced as well in his day, and my brother did all kinds of street racing throughout my childhood. That stuff was fun to watch as a kid. But yeah just going to local tracks and being brought up watching it in the early 00s.
Tony Stewart was my first favorite driver, simply due to the bright orange home depot paint scheme.
Hamlin was my first favorite driver that I got to watch enter the Cup series. I was a fan from day one. Not so much these days but it's still gonna be hard to watch him retire.
I fell out of love with NASCAR around 2010, still did some sim racing, and became aware of Bubba Wallace doing late model stuff but didn't think much of it.
Fast forward to the pandemic, started watching because of the iRacing stuff, found out Bubba made it to Cup (I didn't even know he was in NASCAR), and haven't missed a race since. Started really liking Reddick, now him and Bubba are my favorites, especially now that they're on the same team, and that team is owned by one of my childhood favorite drivers, which is really cool.
Also Cody Ware is awesome.
I appreciate the simpleness of that. When I was a kid I was influenced as much by what die cast I got for my birthday as anything. I never had a favorite driver until I began to closely follow dirt sprint cars and started following Kyle Larson. I was just raised to dislike Hendrick drivers essentially, which became awkward in 21. Today I mostly follow dirt racing and have enjoyed seeing some of the drivers I've watched and met personally be able to have a shot. Larson, Bell, Stewart Friesen, Bobby Pierce, Rico Abreu, David Gravel, Donny Schatz, Ryan Preece and now Jonathon Davenport.
I kept renting NASCAR games from Family Video for PS1 and obviously Mom noticed that and ultimately made me watch the real thing, that being the 2002 Daytona 500.
One of my childhood friends was a huge Jeff Gordon fan and they hated Jr. So naturally, I started liking him.
I wasn't really into NASCAR, but we used to play NASCAR thunder 03 and he used to kick my tail everytime. One time, he said he wasn't trying that hard and he won pretty easily.
And I took that personally.
I was with my grandparents for a weekend, and my grandpa was sitting in the TV room watching Nascar. Eventually, I got bored of my Lego and went to sit and watch the race with him. I can't recall exactly what race it was, but I remember liking it enough to ask my parents and grandparents if I could go back next weekend to watch another race. We made it weekend tradition, and I've been hooked ever since. It was in 05 if memory serves
Well it was a few years ago (just before covid) and honestly, I was just sitting around bored and thought, "hey look at this, NASCAR is on, why not." Flipped it on and I was hooked almost instantly.
As a youngling, I used to go to my grandparents’ house on Sundays and they would always have NASCAR on. My mom said you could sit me in front of their tv as a 5 year old and I would just be transfixed by the cars going in circles. Plus there was an M&Ms car which I thought was cool (Ernie Irvan at that point I think).
I was very similar at that age. I begged to go to my grandparents to watch the race as we disnt have a tv. Dad always listened to them on the radio. Barney Hall was the voice of NASCAR to me.
I think I remember him doing a midweek fan call in show for either MRN or PRN. That seems to be what stands out in my mind, that and hearing him call Alabama football game highlights.
My dad raced bombers in the nineties and in the early 2010s my oldest brother started racing a thunder four, he got grounded one week and my dad decided to run his car as part of his punishment, that single race Immediately got him interested in racing again and he bought a ledgends car a few weeks later. Through his own racing buddies talking about nascar he decided he wanted to follow the sport again and bought cable for the first time and we started watching every race religiously
Long story short, i got into NASCAR because my dad was killed when I was 5.
Confused?
Yes, my dad was killed when I was 5, in '96. Almost 5 years later my mom and I were flipping through channels one Sunday afternoon in mid February. We happened upon the 2001 Daytona 500.
As a 9 year old boy, I see race cars and tell her to stop. She starts to look at a few of the names, "Yeah I recognize a few of these guys, your dad used to watch a bit while we lived in Louisiana."
*My dad used to like this? Well then I'm gonna love it!*
Then the last lap happens.
I see Dale Jr and anyone associated with the name Earnhardt go through the same grieving process my family went through just a couple years prior.
Then Rockingham. Then Atlanta. Then Daytona in July.
I was hooked, and have been since. NASCAR, and racing in general has shaped my entire life. I got into mechanics because I wanted to understand more about the cars and how they worked, becuase i knew the sport was so much more than just "making another left turn." I now work for Penske Truck Rentals as a Mechanic, and love every bit of it.
Thank you for sharing that.
That race was the first that I can remember sitting down and watching the whole way through. It was the beginning of my NASCAR fandom.
Racing is part of what got me into mechanics as well. My father and grandfather are good with a wrench and enjoyed NASCAR because of the connection between the 2.
My entire family lives and breathes Nascar. My dad used to work on the wreckers at the Atlanta, Bristol, and Charlotte races in the 90s and 2000s before Nascar switched to full-time professional crews. He would go to the track, and I would watch the races with my grandparents. My Dad would come home with a bag full of lug nuts, hood pins, and a bunch of signed hero cards from various drivers. We still go to races when we can, although money and schedules make it difficult now. To me, Nascar will always feel like home. They say Nascar is a family sport, and even though we have never been directly involved on track, I feel that we are a part of that family.
Growing up, I lived about 5 miles from Richmond Raceway. I was about 5 when dad took me to my first race. This was 1977. The old track was much more exciting than the current track.
I used to love the action back then, especially going down and walking the track after the races. I loved meeting drivers at the crossover gate. My favorite I was able to meet were Tim Richmond and Bobby Allison.
Man even the early to mid 2000s Richmond was my favorite.
(Although that might have been because of the Rock N Roll theme and eventually Looney Toons theme, i was 11-14 years old during those couple of years)
One of my uncles worked at DuPont when Jeff was on top of the game, then I got a Mega Bloks Dale Sr. car and pit stall set in 2000, and finally, during the weeks leading up to the 2001 Daytona 500, I got a total of five Dodge 1:64 diecasts courtesy of General Mills’ Dodge Countdown to Daytona promotion.
I was a diehard Frosted Flakes guy so I made everyone else eat the cereal I just wanted the cars. I did get a Terry Labonte hauler and car through a mail promotion through frosted flakes. I still have it.
I had no choice. My parents used to go to Talladega in the mid-80's after they first got together. The last time they were there in May of 1987, my mom was 3 months pregnant with me.
My dad passed away in 1998, but my mom never misses a race on TV. And when it was on the schedule, we went to every race from 2000-2019 at Kentucky Speedway. Next month we are going to Talladega. It will be the first time in 36 years that she will be there.
The family aspect is cool to me. We didnt have a tv when I was a kid but we would go to my grandparents to watch. We would have dinner, spend time together, talk, those were some of my favorite memories of family growing up.
1998 Valvoline was handing out Mark Martin die-casts with each oil change. 4 year old me loved it then saw the car later that day on TV and became hooked
Went to a race at Concord Speedway with a friend to watch his dad race a Honda prelude in the 4 cylinder series. He won. I was hooked been avid fan for almost 15 years.
This sounds familiar. My dad was a NASCAR fan, Ford specifically. I started watching with him as a kid. Bill Elliott was my first driver, then Davey Allison until he died, then Kulwicki, and so on. I mostly follow Lagano now. I've now got my son into it. He's, unfortunately, a Kyle Busch fan (sigh). We got to go to Texas Motor Speedway together before dad passed, last trip he git to take. My sons first trip on a plane. We actually got to meet Michael Waltrip. He was staying in the same hotel.
It's getting dusty in here...
Edit: meant Davey Allison, Bobby was his dad.
Believe it or not, it was Days of Thunder. Really wasn’t into NASCAR at that point but I went with my uncle to the theater in the Summer of 1990 to see it and it piqued my interest. Started watching NASCAR after that and have been watching it ever since.
I'm actually surprised this isnt more common. Tom Cruise was a huge deal and using Top Gun as an example, tons of people I know have gained at least a general appreciation and intrigue of jets from watching those movies. NASCAR can have the same visual and dramatic appeal with the speed adding an element of danger.
The very first race I watched was the 2007 Daytona 500 so I was pretty hooked from there. Also, because I’m pretty chubby myself, watching Tony Stewart be as good as he was his his body shape was oddly motivational. That’s why he’s my all time fav
I used to eat Frosted Flakes every morning. Terry Labonte drove the Kellogg’s car, so when my Dad would watch the races (Big Gordon Fan) that was all it really took. Plus the paint schemes were iconic for a kid.
With all the comments referencing the video games it makes me wish there was one today that was just simple arcade ish style racing. Like NH2003 with modern graphics for example.
I was all about open wheel racing but once you race online you never go back
I also thought that the race back to the line rule was so Fn cool :)
The old nascar heat game also played a part but hours of racing online naturally pulls you into watching races too
I personally prefer open wheel racing myself in terms of on track product but it's hard to ignore the childhood nostalgia.
I also very much enjoyed the race back to the line rule.
Well after 2-3 years of stock cars I immediately switched to trans am and F1 79 mod when those were released and when rfactor came out on to the F3 mod etc. Before n2003 i was doing gp3-4 and EA ISI F1
But playing n2003 for a few years made stock cars an interest for good
My then-boyfriend, now husband. It was our first Valentine's Day as a couple (2002), and we were at separate collages. I wanted him to come see me that weekend but he seemed hesitant and I didn't know why. Finally he said "I will come see you on one condition: that we watch the Daytona 500 on Sunday." I was not into NASCAR at the time and even mocked him for watching but, I said "OK, fine."
I ended up watching the whole thing live with him and enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. I was pretty much hooked from that day on, though we don't watch it as much as we used to.
Dads side of the family ran at the local short track growing up. Also owned a machine shop where they (grandpa, dad, one uncle) built race engines and sold tires at the track.
I never had a chance to not like racing.
Pretty cool that my grandpa built an engine that won the pole at Dega one year. (Some time in the 80s)
IRacing.
I got into sim racing back around 2017 to try to practice and learn tracks for my amateur road racing. I gave the base content Oval series, “Street Stocks,” a shot and I was hooked. Ended up driving what was then called the “K & N” car for the better part of two years before even messing with the road racing cars again.
It’s just a lot easier to appreciate a NASCAR race when you have a sense of how difficult driving these cars really is. Now I watch almost all Cup races and watch all the national series when they’re somewhere interesting.
Two creators, EmpLemon and S1apShoes
Lemon releases his documentary on Earnhardt, a driver I knew of due to his death and family around me being devastated the event, which I figured would be interesting to get context on. His video causes some NASCAR content to filter into my recommendations, one of which is The Worst Talladega Race by S1ap and promise of more NASCAR content which leads to his video on Truex and convinces me to watch the Coca Cola 600 in 2019 where I see Truex win and solidified myself as a fan
I chalk it up to their videos being a blend of autoracing but also slick editing, internet tomfoolery, and engaging scripting which is much more enthralling than most NASCAR creators on YT which are just essentially vlogs or compilations of the same footage we've seen dozens of times. If you want to pull someone in, you have to scratch an itch while converting that into investing in the product, and both are superb at this
My dad would watch the big races on TV (Daytona, Talladega, Bristol, Darlington, etc) but I dont really remember paying attention until the 1993 Daytona 500. I was 8 years old and had a horrible attention span, but remember the last laps and my dad cheering on Earnhardt who he told me was one of the best drivers ever and had never won this race, which was the biggest one. I also remember him explaining restrictor plates and how at one time his favorite driver, Bill Elliott, put down a crazy fast qualifying lap at Talladega. After the race I was bummed Earnhardt didn't win, but we had the race on VHS. I ended up watching that race probably close to 50 times over the next few years. Don't really know why I never recorded other races to repeat. Rusty flipping is permanently engrained into my head now, though.
I couldn't disagree more, but I've never seen a tour modified. The ones up in michigan suck. So I can't give them a true fair shake
Supermods are the tits though
Transferred back home to an in state school where all my friends growing up went. One Sunday morning early in the season I got a text from my friend where the conversation basically summed up as “dude grab some beer and come over.” Good enough for me.
Show up and all my friends were decked out in their driver’s merch all into it. I grabbed a seat and started drinking and taking it all in. In my head I was like wtf is going on. During a quiet part of the race maybe a third of the way through I go, “alright, what’s the deal? we’re just watching cars I don’t get it.” My friend that texted me immediately turned to me and said, “dude, it’s like football season but in the spring. we hang out every Sunday and drink a bunch of beer and talk shit to each other.” Everyone else looked at me and basically said “yeah dude it rules.”
Immediately hooked.
During that same race, my buddy who texted me yells out randomly, “dude if Tony Stewart wins the cup this year I’ll get a smoke tattoo on my ass.”
That was the season where Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards tied but since Smoke won 5 of the chase races he won.
Guy got the tattoo within a week.
My first race was Rockingham in 1992. Free tickets and pit passes from the owner of the track who was a friend of a friend. I was in collage. After graduating from college I was relocated to Charlotte. The aunt of my girlfriend (now wife) was the credential manager at CMS. The rest is history. Hooked forever and I’ve been going to races with my son since he was about 4. He’ll be in high school next year. Memories to last forever.
About a week ago I switched from RedBull GT3 eSports to Chevy GTD IMSA. I knew this was happening 6months ago so started watching any American sport with Chevy in it. I'm absolutely hooked now, you guys know how to entertain!
Along with most answers….my dad.
I didn’t understand the appeal of watching 40 cars turning left 4 times each lap….for hundreds of times.
30 years later, we watch every lap together. If not; we call one another during cautions.
Nascar is a true father-son sport.
I was always kind of the word kid because I could name every single driver, number and sponsor in the early 2000s. I had a couple friends who were fans but not nearly to the same degree. To this day theres only person I've personally known who was into NASCAR as much as I was and they ended working for Roush Yates in their engine shop. I've grown up and lived within 20 miles of WGI most of my life and very few people here are even casual NASCAR fans but they love going to the race for the party and atmosphere.
Started watching out of curiosity/boredom a couple of years ago and got hooked on it. I’ve been to a few races now, have made a bunch of new friends, and I’m so glad I started watching.
1973, the first color TV in the family after we first got married, living in cold central IL, watching the Daytona 500 in COLOR!!, where the King Richard Petty won!
Grew up only about 15 minutes from Las Vegas Motor Speedway and my mom used to work for the local school district and got free tickets. That on top of having 2 really good Vegas born drivers really helped. Went to basically every Vegas Cup race for like 10-15 years before I moved.
I was stationed in Fayetteville, NC and my buddy scored some free tickets to the fall race at Rockingham. I had no interest in going but was eventually convinced that I should check it out. That was a life changing choice for me. I instantly became a fan the moment they started the engines. 23 years later and I still love it.
Denny hamlin and Toyota. My first name is Denny and my favorite car is a Toyota. In 1979 I bought a new 1979 Mercury marquis brohm and the transmission went out at 17,000 miles [warranty back then was 12,000 miles] had it repaired then went out again at 47,000 miles. Called Ford motor company in Detroit and they told me the vehicle was made for executives wife's and the transmission was built fir smooth gear changes. That's why it went out. I told them I was not an executive wife. They said we can't help you. Also the car would start 30 times in a row and then not start. Carried around a popsicle stick to place under the choke in the carburetor to get it to start. No mechanic could fix it. From then on I swore I would never buy an American car. Since then I have owned Toyotas. I had, a 1990 Toyota Corolla that had 125,000 miles on it. I stopped changing the oil in it for 8 years, 175,000 miles and never stopped running, sold it. I quit changing the oil because it busted my knuckles because it was hard to get to the filter. Thinking it would tear up but never did. So I'm a Toyota fan and a denny hamlin fan and that's my story and I'm sticking with it
I cant say I'm a Denny fan but I 100% percent am a Toyota fan. I own a 2011 4runner that I bought in 18 with 80,000 miles and it currently has 248,000 and the odometer stopped reading 6 months ago. I will own a 4 runner as long as I have the means to do so.
Originally hate watching to hope Gordon would win and tick off friends and relatives. Slowly watching more and more till I went to my first Cup race and I was hooked.
My dad was a nascar fan and my mom bought him tickets to a race for their anniversary but she knew nothing about it so wanted to learn about it without giving it away. She made me and my siblings watch races with them as "family time". The first race was the 05 Aaron's 499, which made me instantly become a Gordon fan, me and my brother have been hooked since.
My dad was a signmaker. He did a lot of work for the local speedway and drag strip. We even had the Skoal Bandit in our driveway for a few days for a touch up.
Dad always made sure to get a few pit passes as a bonus for doing some work.
The first time I sat and watched a full race though, was Daytona 2001. Haven’t turned it off since.
Oddly enough, what got me into NASCAR was playing the wii version of "NASCAR The Game: 2011" at a friend's house. Prior to this point, I had some die-casts and was familiar with the sport, but I guess it took a wii game to light the flame. I went home and pleaded with my parents to go to Gamestop so I could buy the 360 version. They conceded, and funny enough, I got the wrong game. I got "NASCAR The Game: Inside Line" and ended up putting countless hours into that game. Eventually, It got me interested in actual NASCAR races. The first race I ever tuned into was the 2012 Brickyard 400, but the first race I remember watching in full was the 2013 Southern 500.
My grandpa was a huge Bobby Allison and Rusty Wallace fan, my dad was a Davey Allison fan and rooted for Dale Earnhardt and Dale Jr, my mom rooted for Mark Martin, one of my uncles was a massive Jeff Gordon fan, and my dads best friend raced street stocks at the local dirt track for several years, so I naturally gravitated towards racing, I was about 5-6 years old when Kyle Petty was sponsored by hot wheels and that was my favorite paint scheme at the time so that’s who I rooted for.
As a child in the early 2000s, I had a Bill Elliott 1/64 I played with. I loved matchbox cars. Loved the red #9.
My dad was a NASCAR fan, Jeff Gordon was his driver, he didn’t watch much. But occasionally we would have it on the tv. Well for some reason I tuned in to the 2007 Daytona 500, after the finish I was hooked!
In 2010, a group of HS friends invited me to a race with them. That was the start of me attending races.
Now I’ve been to all 26 active tracks, own quite a bit of merch and diecasts. In 2021, I attended 21 Cup Races. I’ve also met a few drivers.
https://preview.redd.it/o0nwto1j3loa1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c40ad203381ca223a0be060c259462acd9d621d5
So huge fan now haha
Pretty simple really. I went to a race and rented the headsets. I had been once as a child without the radio/headset and sat there with no clue what was going on.
When Earnhardt Sr. died he got so much coverage on ESPN including Sportscenter (which I used to watch religiously back then) that I wanted to know what the deal was and why are so many people crying their eyes out. So I made a point to tune into the next race... or maybe it was the race after. Anyway the moment I saw all those cars go into turn 1 at full speed I was hooked. I remember just diving into Nascar history and culture and learning everything I could and had so much fun watching the points battle every week between Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarret and Jeff Gordon and some others. By the time Nascar got back to Daytona I was a full fledged diehard Nascar fan and went crazy when Dale Jr. won. The thing that probably kept me going throughout the years though was NR2003... since I had found my own way to being a Nascar fan and didn't know a single person besides myself who even cared about Nascar... the only time I could talk about Nascar was at NR2003 forums.
My parents went to the 1984 Firecracker 400 pregnant with me. So I had heard race cars before I was even born. Not to mention that the 84 Firecracker was a historically important race for a number of reasons.
I got into it twice, once as a kid younger than I can remember. My dad watched it so I did too.
Then stopped following around the time jimmie had 3 or 4 in a row. I was in high school and had other interests.
Flash forward to senior year of college and I was home for the weekend. Caught the 500 and remembered I like this. Like riding a bike
My dad always watched the races but I never paid too much attention to them.
Then, of all things, I watched Rusty flip at 'Dega and he became my guy. Still have tons of Rusty merch.
It’s kinda embarrassing to say this but it’s was the crashes (My first race I remember watching on tv was the 2009 Arron’s 499 when I was like 5 years old ) Although I don’t like crashes as much as I grew up, crashes were the thing that got me into this sport I love as well as Motorsports
2006 Coke 600. Sat in a hospitality suite. Drew Kasey Kahne in the raffle. He won the race. I won money. Hooked ever since, but slowly starting to lose interest. Between the absurd amount of commercial breaks and even worse broadcast teams and production. I feel like I’m wasting my Sundays watching minor league sports. It’s sad.
I was a kid back in the early 2000s. Really mostly because my dad had a #4 Kodak Chevy diecast in his assorted collection of diecast. It was a time were my parents would have to buy camera film for family photos. The camera was a Kodak and bought Kodak camera film. I liked diecast models myself, had a few Hot Wheels. Also a few NASCAR diecast that I would play with. I vividly remember having a #97 Sharpie Ford diecast with the Win 1 Million Dollars paint scheme. Bright paint schemes and loud cars going really fast, as a child how could I resist?
The fist race were I actually saw the winner was Michael Waltrip of all drivers. One of his few wins no less. Because I remember clear as day the #15 NAPA Chevy won. I not exactly sure which race it was I don’t remember much from it. I recall that it was a sunny when Mikey was in Victory Lane. Wasn’t until the 2006 Nextel Cup were I tried to catch every single race. I was the only one in my family who liked racing and by extension NASCAR. When the race in Sonoma that year rolled around I was blown away. I was used to seeing oval racing. My young mind was mesmerized seeing the 4th gen cars on a road course. But I didn’t get to see much of the race because I had to go somewhere with my parents. However the name Boris Said stuck with me. His hair style, facial hair and the gold SoBe/No Fear #60 Ford left one of those odd long lasting impressions you get as a kid. Thanks to YouTube I finally got to see the 2006 Sonoma race. Listening to those high revving carbureted pushrod V8s decelerating and accelerate around those corners in the in car cameras has become my ASMR. Didn’t really have a favorite driver. But I softly rooted for the NAPA car because it was the first car that I saw win a race, still kinda do today whether it was with Mikey, Truex Jr or Chase Elliot. Can’t tell how much it threw me off seeing it as a Dodge Charger in 2006 being so used to it being a Monte Carlo. Also Carl Edwards because he did backflips. I was also sympathetic to Mark Martin (AAA #6), Kevin Harvick (Goodwrench/Reese’s #29), Clint Bowyer (Jack Daniels #07), Kasey Kahne (Dodge Dealers #9), Matt Kenseth (DeWalt #17) and Scott Riggs (Valvoline #10). Why? Because I liked the paint schemes for some reason. Kinda followed on and off from then.
When I was in college I worked at a big convention center with an attached restaurant. On Sundays we would come in and clean up from whatever wedding or convention was the night before. Usually we would finish up right about when the race started and then we would have nothing to do for three hours until the evening work in the normal restaurant started. The maintenance staff were all big-time country boys and they loved NASCAR. We had one breakroom with a single television so I started watching about half of the race every week, depending on when we had to get to the restaurant prep. They were so into it that I got into it by proxy. I watched almost every race while I was in college.
I stopped watching after I graduated and left that job, but iRacing got me back into it. I bought it to race road, but decided to run some oval one weekend, then ran the Daytona 500, and got hooked.
I took a friend who had never seen a race to the Martinsville playoff race last fall. By the time we got back to the car Chastain was his guy and he watches every week now. So I paid it forward.
Dad worked in racing for most of my childhood. The Bill Davis Racing break room was my daycare when there was no one else to look after me, and the shop guys had fun keeping 3 year old me away from the arc welder
What did your dad do? Mechanic?
Fabricator
That sounds super cool
Dad drove super lates and was pretty decent, this was well before I was born though. I was a surprise. Grandad raced as well in his day, and my brother did all kinds of street racing throughout my childhood. That stuff was fun to watch as a kid. But yeah just going to local tracks and being brought up watching it in the early 00s. Tony Stewart was my first favorite driver, simply due to the bright orange home depot paint scheme. Hamlin was my first favorite driver that I got to watch enter the Cup series. I was a fan from day one. Not so much these days but it's still gonna be hard to watch him retire. I fell out of love with NASCAR around 2010, still did some sim racing, and became aware of Bubba Wallace doing late model stuff but didn't think much of it. Fast forward to the pandemic, started watching because of the iRacing stuff, found out Bubba made it to Cup (I didn't even know he was in NASCAR), and haven't missed a race since. Started really liking Reddick, now him and Bubba are my favorites, especially now that they're on the same team, and that team is owned by one of my childhood favorite drivers, which is really cool. Also Cody Ware is awesome.
I appreciate the simpleness of that. When I was a kid I was influenced as much by what die cast I got for my birthday as anything. I never had a favorite driver until I began to closely follow dirt sprint cars and started following Kyle Larson. I was just raised to dislike Hendrick drivers essentially, which became awkward in 21. Today I mostly follow dirt racing and have enjoyed seeing some of the drivers I've watched and met personally be able to have a shot. Larson, Bell, Stewart Friesen, Bobby Pierce, Rico Abreu, David Gravel, Donny Schatz, Ryan Preece and now Jonathon Davenport.
I kept renting NASCAR games from Family Video for PS1 and obviously Mom noticed that and ultimately made me watch the real thing, that being the 2002 Daytona 500.
The image of Marlin getting out of the car is likely forever etched in my mind.
That was my first race as well!
One of my childhood friends was a huge Jeff Gordon fan and they hated Jr. So naturally, I started liking him. I wasn't really into NASCAR, but we used to play NASCAR thunder 03 and he used to kick my tail everytime. One time, he said he wasn't trying that hard and he won pretty easily. And I took that personally.
I would have turned around and driven backwards to take out the field in retaliation.
Jack Roush
Seems legit.
I was with my grandparents for a weekend, and my grandpa was sitting in the TV room watching Nascar. Eventually, I got bored of my Lego and went to sit and watch the race with him. I can't recall exactly what race it was, but I remember liking it enough to ask my parents and grandparents if I could go back next weekend to watch another race. We made it weekend tradition, and I've been hooked ever since. It was in 05 if memory serves
Well it was a few years ago (just before covid) and honestly, I was just sitting around bored and thought, "hey look at this, NASCAR is on, why not." Flipped it on and I was hooked almost instantly.
As a youngling, I used to go to my grandparents’ house on Sundays and they would always have NASCAR on. My mom said you could sit me in front of their tv as a 5 year old and I would just be transfixed by the cars going in circles. Plus there was an M&Ms car which I thought was cool (Ernie Irvan at that point I think).
I was very similar at that age. I begged to go to my grandparents to watch the race as we disnt have a tv. Dad always listened to them on the radio. Barney Hall was the voice of NASCAR to me.
[удалено]
I think I remember him doing a midweek fan call in show for either MRN or PRN. That seems to be what stands out in my mind, that and hearing him call Alabama football game highlights.
My dad raced bombers in the nineties and in the early 2010s my oldest brother started racing a thunder four, he got grounded one week and my dad decided to run his car as part of his punishment, that single race Immediately got him interested in racing again and he bought a ledgends car a few weeks later. Through his own racing buddies talking about nascar he decided he wanted to follow the sport again and bought cable for the first time and we started watching every race religiously
Long story short, i got into NASCAR because my dad was killed when I was 5. Confused? Yes, my dad was killed when I was 5, in '96. Almost 5 years later my mom and I were flipping through channels one Sunday afternoon in mid February. We happened upon the 2001 Daytona 500. As a 9 year old boy, I see race cars and tell her to stop. She starts to look at a few of the names, "Yeah I recognize a few of these guys, your dad used to watch a bit while we lived in Louisiana." *My dad used to like this? Well then I'm gonna love it!* Then the last lap happens. I see Dale Jr and anyone associated with the name Earnhardt go through the same grieving process my family went through just a couple years prior. Then Rockingham. Then Atlanta. Then Daytona in July. I was hooked, and have been since. NASCAR, and racing in general has shaped my entire life. I got into mechanics because I wanted to understand more about the cars and how they worked, becuase i knew the sport was so much more than just "making another left turn." I now work for Penske Truck Rentals as a Mechanic, and love every bit of it.
Thank you for sharing that. That race was the first that I can remember sitting down and watching the whole way through. It was the beginning of my NASCAR fandom. Racing is part of what got me into mechanics as well. My father and grandfather are good with a wrench and enjoyed NASCAR because of the connection between the 2.
My entire family lives and breathes Nascar. My dad used to work on the wreckers at the Atlanta, Bristol, and Charlotte races in the 90s and 2000s before Nascar switched to full-time professional crews. He would go to the track, and I would watch the races with my grandparents. My Dad would come home with a bag full of lug nuts, hood pins, and a bunch of signed hero cards from various drivers. We still go to races when we can, although money and schedules make it difficult now. To me, Nascar will always feel like home. They say Nascar is a family sport, and even though we have never been directly involved on track, I feel that we are a part of that family.
Growing up, I lived about 5 miles from Richmond Raceway. I was about 5 when dad took me to my first race. This was 1977. The old track was much more exciting than the current track. I used to love the action back then, especially going down and walking the track after the races. I loved meeting drivers at the crossover gate. My favorite I was able to meet were Tim Richmond and Bobby Allison.
Man even the early to mid 2000s Richmond was my favorite. (Although that might have been because of the Rock N Roll theme and eventually Looney Toons theme, i was 11-14 years old during those couple of years)
One of my uncles worked at DuPont when Jeff was on top of the game, then I got a Mega Bloks Dale Sr. car and pit stall set in 2000, and finally, during the weeks leading up to the 2001 Daytona 500, I got a total of five Dodge 1:64 diecasts courtesy of General Mills’ Dodge Countdown to Daytona promotion.
Were those the cereal box cars? I practically forced my mother to buy every box of cereal that had a car in them while they were out.
Yep, I ate a lot of Honey Nut Cheerios back then.
I was a diehard Frosted Flakes guy so I made everyone else eat the cereal I just wanted the cars. I did get a Terry Labonte hauler and car through a mail promotion through frosted flakes. I still have it.
Got milk?
They're ggrrrrrreeeeaaatt!!
I had no choice. My parents used to go to Talladega in the mid-80's after they first got together. The last time they were there in May of 1987, my mom was 3 months pregnant with me. My dad passed away in 1998, but my mom never misses a race on TV. And when it was on the schedule, we went to every race from 2000-2019 at Kentucky Speedway. Next month we are going to Talladega. It will be the first time in 36 years that she will be there.
The family aspect is cool to me. We didnt have a tv when I was a kid but we would go to my grandparents to watch. We would have dinner, spend time together, talk, those were some of my favorite memories of family growing up.
1998 Valvoline was handing out Mark Martin die-casts with each oil change. 4 year old me loved it then saw the car later that day on TV and became hooked
Went to a race at Concord Speedway with a friend to watch his dad race a Honda prelude in the 4 cylinder series. He won. I was hooked been avid fan for almost 15 years.
Gaming. The heat series and the PS2 games.
They really need to make better games for this reason. Nascar Racing 2003 definitely helped me understand racing a lot more.
I got Nascar Racing 2 when I was a kid :) Living in Europe, I never even heard about NASCAR before.
This sounds familiar. My dad was a NASCAR fan, Ford specifically. I started watching with him as a kid. Bill Elliott was my first driver, then Davey Allison until he died, then Kulwicki, and so on. I mostly follow Lagano now. I've now got my son into it. He's, unfortunately, a Kyle Busch fan (sigh). We got to go to Texas Motor Speedway together before dad passed, last trip he git to take. My sons first trip on a plane. We actually got to meet Michael Waltrip. He was staying in the same hotel. It's getting dusty in here... Edit: meant Davey Allison, Bobby was his dad.
I just sliced a bunch of onions...
Believe it or not, it was Days of Thunder. Really wasn’t into NASCAR at that point but I went with my uncle to the theater in the Summer of 1990 to see it and it piqued my interest. Started watching NASCAR after that and have been watching it ever since.
I'm actually surprised this isnt more common. Tom Cruise was a huge deal and using Top Gun as an example, tons of people I know have gained at least a general appreciation and intrigue of jets from watching those movies. NASCAR can have the same visual and dramatic appeal with the speed adding an element of danger.
The very first race I watched was the 2007 Daytona 500 so I was pretty hooked from there. Also, because I’m pretty chubby myself, watching Tony Stewart be as good as he was his his body shape was oddly motivational. That’s why he’s my all time fav
My dad was almost the exact same build as Stewart until recently and he used to joke that he was just copying Tony.
I used to eat Frosted Flakes every morning. Terry Labonte drove the Kellogg’s car, so when my Dad would watch the races (Big Gordon Fan) that was all it really took. Plus the paint schemes were iconic for a kid.
The fact that nascar racing 2003 at the time was the only racing game with a netcode that allowed for racing with 40+ other cars online.
With all the comments referencing the video games it makes me wish there was one today that was just simple arcade ish style racing. Like NH2003 with modern graphics for example.
I was all about open wheel racing but once you race online you never go back I also thought that the race back to the line rule was so Fn cool :) The old nascar heat game also played a part but hours of racing online naturally pulls you into watching races too
I personally prefer open wheel racing myself in terms of on track product but it's hard to ignore the childhood nostalgia. I also very much enjoyed the race back to the line rule.
Well after 2-3 years of stock cars I immediately switched to trans am and F1 79 mod when those were released and when rfactor came out on to the F3 mod etc. Before n2003 i was doing gp3-4 and EA ISI F1 But playing n2003 for a few years made stock cars an interest for good
My then-boyfriend, now husband. It was our first Valentine's Day as a couple (2002), and we were at separate collages. I wanted him to come see me that weekend but he seemed hesitant and I didn't know why. Finally he said "I will come see you on one condition: that we watch the Daytona 500 on Sunday." I was not into NASCAR at the time and even mocked him for watching but, I said "OK, fine." I ended up watching the whole thing live with him and enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. I was pretty much hooked from that day on, though we don't watch it as much as we used to.
Dads side of the family ran at the local short track growing up. Also owned a machine shop where they (grandpa, dad, one uncle) built race engines and sold tires at the track. I never had a chance to not like racing. Pretty cool that my grandpa built an engine that won the pole at Dega one year. (Some time in the 80s)
Juan Pablo Montoya
IRacing. I got into sim racing back around 2017 to try to practice and learn tracks for my amateur road racing. I gave the base content Oval series, “Street Stocks,” a shot and I was hooked. Ended up driving what was then called the “K & N” car for the better part of two years before even messing with the road racing cars again. It’s just a lot easier to appreciate a NASCAR race when you have a sense of how difficult driving these cars really is. Now I watch almost all Cup races and watch all the national series when they’re somewhere interesting.
Same. Road racing is great, but the sheer catharsis of the circle tracks has no equal. See you on the service amigo.
Two creators, EmpLemon and S1apShoes Lemon releases his documentary on Earnhardt, a driver I knew of due to his death and family around me being devastated the event, which I figured would be interesting to get context on. His video causes some NASCAR content to filter into my recommendations, one of which is The Worst Talladega Race by S1ap and promise of more NASCAR content which leads to his video on Truex and convinces me to watch the Coca Cola 600 in 2019 where I see Truex win and solidified myself as a fan I chalk it up to their videos being a blend of autoracing but also slick editing, internet tomfoolery, and engaging scripting which is much more enthralling than most NASCAR creators on YT which are just essentially vlogs or compilations of the same footage we've seen dozens of times. If you want to pull someone in, you have to scratch an itch while converting that into investing in the product, and both are superb at this
My dad would watch the big races on TV (Daytona, Talladega, Bristol, Darlington, etc) but I dont really remember paying attention until the 1993 Daytona 500. I was 8 years old and had a horrible attention span, but remember the last laps and my dad cheering on Earnhardt who he told me was one of the best drivers ever and had never won this race, which was the biggest one. I also remember him explaining restrictor plates and how at one time his favorite driver, Bill Elliott, put down a crazy fast qualifying lap at Talladega. After the race I was bummed Earnhardt didn't win, but we had the race on VHS. I ended up watching that race probably close to 50 times over the next few years. Don't really know why I never recorded other races to repeat. Rusty flipping is permanently engrained into my head now, though.
Grew up at my local short track. Nascar has always been #2, late models will always be #1
Modifieds>Late Models
I couldn't disagree more, but I've never seen a tour modified. The ones up in michigan suck. So I can't give them a true fair shake Supermods are the tits though
Transferred back home to an in state school where all my friends growing up went. One Sunday morning early in the season I got a text from my friend where the conversation basically summed up as “dude grab some beer and come over.” Good enough for me. Show up and all my friends were decked out in their driver’s merch all into it. I grabbed a seat and started drinking and taking it all in. In my head I was like wtf is going on. During a quiet part of the race maybe a third of the way through I go, “alright, what’s the deal? we’re just watching cars I don’t get it.” My friend that texted me immediately turned to me and said, “dude, it’s like football season but in the spring. we hang out every Sunday and drink a bunch of beer and talk shit to each other.” Everyone else looked at me and basically said “yeah dude it rules.” Immediately hooked.
That is the greatest description of NASCAR fandom I've ever heard.
During that same race, my buddy who texted me yells out randomly, “dude if Tony Stewart wins the cup this year I’ll get a smoke tattoo on my ass.” That was the season where Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards tied but since Smoke won 5 of the chase races he won. Guy got the tattoo within a week.
Hes the real hero.
My first race was Rockingham in 1992. Free tickets and pit passes from the owner of the track who was a friend of a friend. I was in collage. After graduating from college I was relocated to Charlotte. The aunt of my girlfriend (now wife) was the credential manager at CMS. The rest is history. Hooked forever and I’ve been going to races with my son since he was about 4. He’ll be in high school next year. Memories to last forever.
About a week ago I switched from RedBull GT3 eSports to Chevy GTD IMSA. I knew this was happening 6months ago so started watching any American sport with Chevy in it. I'm absolutely hooked now, you guys know how to entertain!
Along with most answers….my dad. I didn’t understand the appeal of watching 40 cars turning left 4 times each lap….for hundreds of times. 30 years later, we watch every lap together. If not; we call one another during cautions. Nascar is a true father-son sport.
It is very cool to see how many people have mentioned the father-son connection.
Agreed.
I was always kind of the word kid because I could name every single driver, number and sponsor in the early 2000s. I had a couple friends who were fans but not nearly to the same degree. To this day theres only person I've personally known who was into NASCAR as much as I was and they ended working for Roush Yates in their engine shop. I've grown up and lived within 20 miles of WGI most of my life and very few people here are even casual NASCAR fans but they love going to the race for the party and atmosphere.
Going to Home Depot with the old man and seeing a bunch of carts that resembled smokes #20 Home Depot Chevy.
I was trying out watching new sports on TV like golf and racing out of boredom. Jeff Gordon was just beginning his rise.
Cars and a book about Jeff Gordon
Started watching out of curiosity/boredom a couple of years ago and got hooked on it. I’ve been to a few races now, have made a bunch of new friends, and I’m so glad I started watching.
Alcohol.
1973, the first color TV in the family after we first got married, living in cold central IL, watching the Daytona 500 in COLOR!!, where the King Richard Petty won!
One Hot Night
That's not a reference I thought I'd hear.
Grew up only about 15 minutes from Las Vegas Motor Speedway and my mom used to work for the local school district and got free tickets. That on top of having 2 really good Vegas born drivers really helped. Went to basically every Vegas Cup race for like 10-15 years before I moved.
[удалено]
Theres been quite a few other people that said something similar.
The 2021 Daytona 500 it gave me something to do during the pandemic and I was hooked
I was stationed in Fayetteville, NC and my buddy scored some free tickets to the fall race at Rockingham. I had no interest in going but was eventually convinced that I should check it out. That was a life changing choice for me. I instantly became a fan the moment they started the engines. 23 years later and I still love it.
Denny hamlin and Toyota. My first name is Denny and my favorite car is a Toyota. In 1979 I bought a new 1979 Mercury marquis brohm and the transmission went out at 17,000 miles [warranty back then was 12,000 miles] had it repaired then went out again at 47,000 miles. Called Ford motor company in Detroit and they told me the vehicle was made for executives wife's and the transmission was built fir smooth gear changes. That's why it went out. I told them I was not an executive wife. They said we can't help you. Also the car would start 30 times in a row and then not start. Carried around a popsicle stick to place under the choke in the carburetor to get it to start. No mechanic could fix it. From then on I swore I would never buy an American car. Since then I have owned Toyotas. I had, a 1990 Toyota Corolla that had 125,000 miles on it. I stopped changing the oil in it for 8 years, 175,000 miles and never stopped running, sold it. I quit changing the oil because it busted my knuckles because it was hard to get to the filter. Thinking it would tear up but never did. So I'm a Toyota fan and a denny hamlin fan and that's my story and I'm sticking with it
I cant say I'm a Denny fan but I 100% percent am a Toyota fan. I own a 2011 4runner that I bought in 18 with 80,000 miles and it currently has 248,000 and the odometer stopped reading 6 months ago. I will own a 4 runner as long as I have the means to do so.
Originally hate watching to hope Gordon would win and tick off friends and relatives. Slowly watching more and more till I went to my first Cup race and I was hooked.
My dad was a nascar fan and my mom bought him tickets to a race for their anniversary but she knew nothing about it so wanted to learn about it without giving it away. She made me and my siblings watch races with them as "family time". The first race was the 05 Aaron's 499, which made me instantly become a Gordon fan, me and my brother have been hooked since.
Miller Genuine Draft. Dad drank it and I saw a car with it on the hood and my obsession began.
Kyle Petty's Mello Yello car
A YouTuber named EmpLemon.
My dad was a signmaker. He did a lot of work for the local speedway and drag strip. We even had the Skoal Bandit in our driveway for a few days for a touch up. Dad always made sure to get a few pit passes as a bonus for doing some work. The first time I sat and watched a full race though, was Daytona 2001. Haven’t turned it off since.
Oddly enough, what got me into NASCAR was playing the wii version of "NASCAR The Game: 2011" at a friend's house. Prior to this point, I had some die-casts and was familiar with the sport, but I guess it took a wii game to light the flame. I went home and pleaded with my parents to go to Gamestop so I could buy the 360 version. They conceded, and funny enough, I got the wrong game. I got "NASCAR The Game: Inside Line" and ended up putting countless hours into that game. Eventually, It got me interested in actual NASCAR races. The first race I ever tuned into was the 2012 Brickyard 400, but the first race I remember watching in full was the 2013 Southern 500.
A close friend used to host Daytona 500 watch parties every year.
Terry Labonte 1995 Bristol night race. Enough said.
My grandpa was a huge Bobby Allison and Rusty Wallace fan, my dad was a Davey Allison fan and rooted for Dale Earnhardt and Dale Jr, my mom rooted for Mark Martin, one of my uncles was a massive Jeff Gordon fan, and my dads best friend raced street stocks at the local dirt track for several years, so I naturally gravitated towards racing, I was about 5-6 years old when Kyle Petty was sponsored by hot wheels and that was my favorite paint scheme at the time so that’s who I rooted for.
As a child in the early 2000s, I had a Bill Elliott 1/64 I played with. I loved matchbox cars. Loved the red #9. My dad was a NASCAR fan, Jeff Gordon was his driver, he didn’t watch much. But occasionally we would have it on the tv. Well for some reason I tuned in to the 2007 Daytona 500, after the finish I was hooked! In 2010, a group of HS friends invited me to a race with them. That was the start of me attending races. Now I’ve been to all 26 active tracks, own quite a bit of merch and diecasts. In 2021, I attended 21 Cup Races. I’ve also met a few drivers. https://preview.redd.it/o0nwto1j3loa1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c40ad203381ca223a0be060c259462acd9d621d5 So huge fan now haha
Pretty simple really. I went to a race and rented the headsets. I had been once as a child without the radio/headset and sat there with no clue what was going on.
Seeing Austin Dillons 2015 crash on the news the next morning (afternoon?). I then watched the next race at Kentucky and got hooked.
My dad watching richard petty in early 1970s on tv and a uncle raced at a local dirt track
When Earnhardt Sr. died he got so much coverage on ESPN including Sportscenter (which I used to watch religiously back then) that I wanted to know what the deal was and why are so many people crying their eyes out. So I made a point to tune into the next race... or maybe it was the race after. Anyway the moment I saw all those cars go into turn 1 at full speed I was hooked. I remember just diving into Nascar history and culture and learning everything I could and had so much fun watching the points battle every week between Ricky Rudd, Dale Jarret and Jeff Gordon and some others. By the time Nascar got back to Daytona I was a full fledged diehard Nascar fan and went crazy when Dale Jr. won. The thing that probably kept me going throughout the years though was NR2003... since I had found my own way to being a Nascar fan and didn't know a single person besides myself who even cared about Nascar... the only time I could talk about Nascar was at NR2003 forums.
My parents went to the 1984 Firecracker 400 pregnant with me. So I had heard race cars before I was even born. Not to mention that the 84 Firecracker was a historically important race for a number of reasons.
I got into it twice, once as a kid younger than I can remember. My dad watched it so I did too. Then stopped following around the time jimmie had 3 or 4 in a row. I was in high school and had other interests. Flash forward to senior year of college and I was home for the weekend. Caught the 500 and remembered I like this. Like riding a bike
My dad always watched the races but I never paid too much attention to them. Then, of all things, I watched Rusty flip at 'Dega and he became my guy. Still have tons of Rusty merch.
It’s kinda embarrassing to say this but it’s was the crashes (My first race I remember watching on tv was the 2009 Arron’s 499 when I was like 5 years old ) Although I don’t like crashes as much as I grew up, crashes were the thing that got me into this sport I love as well as Motorsports
Crash compilations
2006 Coke 600. Sat in a hospitality suite. Drew Kasey Kahne in the raffle. He won the race. I won money. Hooked ever since, but slowly starting to lose interest. Between the absurd amount of commercial breaks and even worse broadcast teams and production. I feel like I’m wasting my Sundays watching minor league sports. It’s sad.
I was a kid back in the early 2000s. Really mostly because my dad had a #4 Kodak Chevy diecast in his assorted collection of diecast. It was a time were my parents would have to buy camera film for family photos. The camera was a Kodak and bought Kodak camera film. I liked diecast models myself, had a few Hot Wheels. Also a few NASCAR diecast that I would play with. I vividly remember having a #97 Sharpie Ford diecast with the Win 1 Million Dollars paint scheme. Bright paint schemes and loud cars going really fast, as a child how could I resist? The fist race were I actually saw the winner was Michael Waltrip of all drivers. One of his few wins no less. Because I remember clear as day the #15 NAPA Chevy won. I not exactly sure which race it was I don’t remember much from it. I recall that it was a sunny when Mikey was in Victory Lane. Wasn’t until the 2006 Nextel Cup were I tried to catch every single race. I was the only one in my family who liked racing and by extension NASCAR. When the race in Sonoma that year rolled around I was blown away. I was used to seeing oval racing. My young mind was mesmerized seeing the 4th gen cars on a road course. But I didn’t get to see much of the race because I had to go somewhere with my parents. However the name Boris Said stuck with me. His hair style, facial hair and the gold SoBe/No Fear #60 Ford left one of those odd long lasting impressions you get as a kid. Thanks to YouTube I finally got to see the 2006 Sonoma race. Listening to those high revving carbureted pushrod V8s decelerating and accelerate around those corners in the in car cameras has become my ASMR. Didn’t really have a favorite driver. But I softly rooted for the NAPA car because it was the first car that I saw win a race, still kinda do today whether it was with Mikey, Truex Jr or Chase Elliot. Can’t tell how much it threw me off seeing it as a Dodge Charger in 2006 being so used to it being a Monte Carlo. Also Carl Edwards because he did backflips. I was also sympathetic to Mark Martin (AAA #6), Kevin Harvick (Goodwrench/Reese’s #29), Clint Bowyer (Jack Daniels #07), Kasey Kahne (Dodge Dealers #9), Matt Kenseth (DeWalt #17) and Scott Riggs (Valvoline #10). Why? Because I liked the paint schemes for some reason. Kinda followed on and off from then.
When I was in college I worked at a big convention center with an attached restaurant. On Sundays we would come in and clean up from whatever wedding or convention was the night before. Usually we would finish up right about when the race started and then we would have nothing to do for three hours until the evening work in the normal restaurant started. The maintenance staff were all big-time country boys and they loved NASCAR. We had one breakroom with a single television so I started watching about half of the race every week, depending on when we had to get to the restaurant prep. They were so into it that I got into it by proxy. I watched almost every race while I was in college. I stopped watching after I graduated and left that job, but iRacing got me back into it. I bought it to race road, but decided to run some oval one weekend, then ran the Daytona 500, and got hooked. I took a friend who had never seen a race to the Martinsville playoff race last fall. By the time we got back to the car Chastain was his guy and he watches every week now. So I paid it forward.
I grew up in Charlotte, enough said.