Highest governing body | NASCAR |
---|---|
Characteristics | |
Contact | Yes |
Team members | Yes |
Type | Outdoor |
Venue | All types of oval tracks and road courses |
Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses. It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It originated in the southern United States; its largest governing body is NASCAR. Its NASCAR Cup Series is the premier top-level series of professional stock car racing. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and the United Kingdom also have forms of stock car racing.[1] Top-level races typically range between 200 and 600 miles (322 and 966 km) in length.
Top-level stock cars exceed 200 mph (322 km/h)[2][3][4] at speedway tracks and on superspeedway tracks such as Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.[5][6] Contemporary NASCAR-spec top-level cars produce maximum power outputs of 860–900 hp[7][8] from their naturally aspirated V8 engines. In October 2007 American race car driver Russ Wicks set a speed record for stock cars in a 2007-season Dodge Charger built to NASCAR specifications by achieving a maximum speed of 244.9 mph (394.1 km/h) at Bonneville Speedway.[9][10] For the 2015 NASCAR Cup Series, power output of the competing cars ranged from 750 to 800 hp (560 to 600 kW).[11][12]