With a new year upon us, that also means a new racing season around the world in all forms of motorsport. Now, from an outsider’s point of view, it may all look the same and some may be naive to the differences between series, some may lack the intelligence to tell the difference and some may just not care and lump it all together as “NASCAR.” All fans of motorsports have these friends, often the type of people who complain about their lack of entertainment once their favorite sport it over or maybe they still think this whole racin deal is for us southerners. I am here to explain the differences between the three most common types of motorsport so that you may use this article to teach them and hey, who knows maybe even you will learn a thing or two about different types of motorsports.
- National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR)- This is the most common motorsport in North America and unlike ball-sports kicks its season off with its biggest event, the Daytona 500 at the birthplace of NASCAR Daytona Beach, Florida. Personally, my favorite form of motorsports (though I do not discriminate) this series runs from around Valentine’s Day til a week or so before Thanksgiving. The series was founded by Bill France Sr in 1948, as a way to help stock car racing grow away from unscrupulous promoters who would often leave with the prize money before drivers were paid. France established a set of rules and a governing body with a regular schedule and an organized championship during a meeting in December of 1947 at the Ebony Bar and Streamline Hotel, both located in Daytona Beach, Florida with the official announcement of the formation of the series on February 21, 1948 (also the date of this season’s Daytona 500). NASCAR runs its races on a plethora of different tracks ranging from 2.5-mile banked ovals to .5 mile short tracks and even a few road courses.
Its highest level, the Sprint Cup Series runs a 36 race schedule with its Chase for the Sprint Cup (NASCAR’s attempt at playoffs) consisting of the final ten races. The Sprint Cup Series runs twice on road courses with the first time being in June at the Sonoma Raceway in southern California and it’s second being at Watkins Glen in New York, often in the first weekend in August. The series runs select night races as well with the most notable being the annual Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, capping off what many motorsports fans call their favorite day of the year with the Indianapolis 500 in the IndyCar Series as well as the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix all in the same day. A few legends of this series include names you may have heard before such as Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty and Davey Allison.
In its second-tier series, the Xfinity Series the drivers run a 33 race schedule comprised of many of the same tracks as the Sprint Cup Series although the series runs the most road courses of NASCAR’s three main series, it does not stop at Sonoma but does run at Watkins Glen, as well as Road America and Mid-Ohio with races in previous seasons at road courses in Canada as well as Mexico. The Xfinity Series is the middle step in the NASCAR ladder, with many drivers racing here before moving up to Sprint Cup so they can get time in the seat and see many of the same tracks they will see in Sprint Cup, however, some Sprint Cup drivers like Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, and Kyle Larson will also race in this series for fun on many occasions throughout the year. The Xfinity Series often only races at a track once per year with the exception of tracks like Daytona and Charlotte where the Sprint Cup Series often makes return trips to tracks throughout its schedule.
The third tier series of NASCAR is the newest one, founded in 1995 and the last one we will go into detail about is the Camping World Truck Series. Besides the obvious differences such as the vehicle being a truck as opposed to a stock car, this series is also the only one of NASCAR’s top three series to race on dirt with the now annual race at Eldora in July and is also the only one of NASCAR’s top three series to run a weekday race with the Eldora race also being on a Wednesday. This series also runs a smaller schedule, with only 23 races on its calendar with their lone trip to a road course being the race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. The Truck Series also runs at Iowa Speedway on the same weekend as the Xfinity Series and is the only one of NASCAR’s top series to run at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois. Drivers often come to the Truck Series as a way of gaining seat time at many tracks also used in the Xfinity and Sprint Cup Series before heading up to those series with names like Chase Elliott, Austin Dillon and Greg Biffle making stops here before heading up the ladder.
NASCAR sanctions other series in other countries as well with the NASCAR Pinty’s Series in Canada, NASCAR Mexico Series in Mexico and the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series in Europe. NASCAR sanctions a variety of lower series in the United States as well with the K&N East and West Series serving as feeders to the top three series as well as weekly races at various tracks throughout America and the Whelen Modified and Southern Modified Series
- IndyCar- This is the first of the open-wheel series we will discuss and is often the most popular in North America. Home to the annual Memorial Day weekend classic, the Indianapolis 500, this series has been in existence since 1994 when the term was coined due to the link between the cars and the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, sanctioned by the CART Series. In 1996 however, the name became the subject of a court case when IMS president Tony George founded his own series using the same cars as the CART Series but with a new name, the Indy Racing League. Since the end of the CART Series, the two have become one, now known as the Verizon IndyCar Series. The Series will run a 16 race schedule this season, with its crown jewel the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 right in the middle of it as well as road course races on the streets of Boston as well as a nice mix of oval course races such as Texas Motor Speedway and Iowa Motor Speedway. Names like Helio Castroneves, Danica Patrick, Juan Pablo Montoya and Dan Wheldon are just a few of the many drivers to have competed in this series. Lately it and the other open-wheel series I will be discussing have been at the center of a slight controversy on how to better protect drivers after the untimely death of Justin Wilson in an IndyCar race at Pocono this past fall when Wilson was struck in the head by a piece of debris off the car of Sage Karam after Karam hit the wall, this debris which was the nosecone of the car careened off into Wilson, sending him head-first into an exposed wall, killing Wilson. Many suggestions have been made by various manufacturers but a plan has not been agreed upon quite yet. Apart from this series, the sanctioning body also governs over the Indy Lights, Pro Mazda and the Cooper Tires USF2000 series which serve as feeder series much like the Xfinity and Truck series discussed in the NASCAR portion of this article.
- Formula One- This is by far the richest series we will be discussing in this article with races throughout the globe in such exotic locations as Monaco, Abu Dhabi, and Sochi. This series often runs early in the morning here in America, often making it viewed less by people here in the states. You won’t find a Ford or Chevy here like in NASCAR or a Honda like in IndyCar, instead, these drivers have the pleasure of driving Ferraris, Mercedes and Jaguars among a host of other manufacturers. Making only one annual trip to the states makes it a must attend event for any motorsports fan. Governed by the FIA, this series has been in existence since the 1950s and has been dominated by names like Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Sir Jackie Stewart as well as, in more recent years Lewis Hamilton. The FIA also runs a series with a similar body style as the F1 cars but powered by electricity rather than gasoline, this series is called Formula E and completed its inaugural season in 2014-2015 running an 11 race schedule in 10 different cities, its inaugural champion was former NASCAR Truck Series driver Nelson Piquet Jr.
Now that you have been educated at least a little bit on different forms of motorsport you can pass this knowledge onto friends and family that may be naive about racing or just simply think everything is “NASCAR” because as you now know, this is not true and NASCAR is not just a blanket term for all forms of motorsports. There are many more forms that you may encounter at a local track. View the photo gallery in this article for pictures of all discussed forms of motorsport and a few lesser known forms as well.
Beyond The Grandstand 