Shot Peening and the NASCAR Industry

Author:  SPOTLIGHT ON
Source:  The Shot Peener magazine, Vol 15 / Issue 2, Summer 2001
Doc ID:  2001024
Year of Publication:  2001
Abstract:  
America's love affair with NASCAR NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing) was incorporated in February, 1948. The first races were on the famed Daytona Beach road course in 1949. And so began America's fascination with the sport that embraces our love of cars, dangerous speeds, and colorful, legendary drivers. Peter Golenbock in "The Last Lap" writes: American stock car racing has never been just a sport to the motorheads and car nuts and racing fans and small-town gas jockeys and big-city executives of oil, auto supply, and car-related companies who have made it their passion over the years. It long has been a mania, a religion even, whose origins began in the Southeast and over the years has spread throughout this nation, to the point that the popularity of stock car racing has skyrocketed. No sport, not baseball or football or basketball, has a larger following. NASCAR has grown so damatically that today Winston Cup events have become the biggest shows of any sport in whatever state they appear. The NASCAR race in Indianapolis, with 250,000 fans in attendance, has become one of the largest sporting events in the world. NASCAR is also BIG money. Top drivers can become multi-millionaires. Corporate sponsors as diverse as Coca-Cola, Miller Beer, Kodak, Kellogg, McDonald's, Nabisco, UPS and VISA spend millions of dollars putting their advertising on cars. The cars cost over $100,000 and countless manufacturers and suppliers vie for NASCAR business. Today's stock cars reach speeds of 200 mph. Victory is measured in seconds and there is absolutely no room for product failure. When there is no room for product failure, there has got to be shot peening . . .