There have been times when NASCAR has not wanted people to know their early history. 

That’s because the people who built NASCAR, drove the cars, built the cars and financed it, were deeply involved in one illegal industry. Moonshine.

To avoid law enforcement and tax collectors, moonshiner makers employed bootleggers, young men who could outrun those trying to stop them.

Soon, a thought occurred, what if we get these great drivers to race against each other?

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Resources

There is a lot on the web about NASCAR’s early days, including a heap of contemporary sources. Rising above all that and a lot more accessible if you want to learn more are two key books, Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France by Daniel S. Pierce and Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR by Neal Thompson.

For more on how the moonshine industry worked, North Carolina Moonshine: An Illicit History by Frank Stephenson Jr. and Barbara Nichols Mulder is fascinating.

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