FROM MOONSHININ' TO MARKETING.

You might say that International Speedway Corporation traces its roots all the way to George Washington, because the Father of Our Country was the first U.S. government official to chase Appalachian moonshiners up hills and down hollers in a race known to history as the Whiskey Rebellion. A century and a half later, federal revenue agents were still trying to put the cuffs on whiskey-running rebels, but they only caught the ones in the slow cars. Natural selection favored good ol' boys who knew how to stiffen suspensions, soup up engines and invent driving tricks that made cars do things they'd never been designed for, like take hairpin mountain curves at a hundred mph or so. Eventually, the good ol' boys started arguing with each other about who had the fastest cars, and racing each other to settle the point; at least, that's how the first recorded race - in the mid-1930s in Stockbridge, Georgia - got started.

A decade later, in 1947, a Daytona Beach auto mechanic, Bill France, founded Nascar, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. France was tough enough to impose a discipline and a rule-book on the outlaw sport. He was also savvy enough to found a company to build and run race tracks...