National Stock Car Racing Association

History

Founded in 1946 in Atlanta, Georgia by Sam Nunis and Weyman Milam, the NSCRA was one of many small sanctioning bodies that appeared after World War II to promote stock car racing. It participated with the U.S. Stock Car Drivers Association and Bill France's National Championship Stock Car Circuit in declaring a consensus national champion for stock cars in 1946. The group remained largely informal, sanctioning modified stock car racing, until O. Bruton Smith of Charlotte, North Carolina assumed responsibility in 1948.

Smith announced a "Strictly Stock" championship starting in 1949, offering lucrative purses to attract stars from France's NASCAR. In direct competition, France ran his own Strictly Stock race at Charlotte Speedway in June 1949. The NSCRA Strictly Stock Championship ran for two years: Ed Samples won the 1949 title, and Buddy Shuman, the 1948 modified champion, won in 1950. In late 1950, Smith and France agreed in principle to merge their organizations, but Smith was drafted in January 1951 to fight in the Korean War as a paratrooper.

In his absence, NSCRA's management, dominated by drivers, could not keep the organization afloat amid internal disputes, and Milam closed the sanctioning body during the summer of 1951. Samples was leading the point standings at closure. Premier drivers like Cotton Owens and tracks such as Lakewood Speedway joined NASCAR afterward.