It’s 1920. Prohibition just struck. The sale of alcohol was banned, yet many people did not agree with this new law. So almost immediately, people started to find ways of getting around the new amendment set in place. Many bars turned into speakeasies, and many of them had hoarded alcohol to make it through the prohibition. There was also a product called Vineglow, that if stored in the right conditions could become wine. 

But how did the majority of people gain access to alcohol? Moonshine was the answer to people’s needs, so all over the country people were making their own moonshine that they would drink and sell to others. Now, the moonshiners had to figure out how to distribute their alcohol in a timely manner, and be able to run from the police if they came. This started what would become a beloved sport across the nation: NASCAR.

In order to avoid the police, and keep the glass bottles of moonshine safe, moonshiners used many different types of vehicles like the Ford V-8, Ford Model A Coupe, Chevy Coupes, Plymouth sedans and Dodge Airflow models. Many runners would have a false bottom panel in their cars to hide the moonshine, then put produce or live chickens on top of the alcohol. These runners also modified their cars to help them outrun the police.

How did the act of selling illegal alcohol start an entire racing scene? Well, after the Prohibition ended in 1933, some people continued to sell the moonshine illegally, but that didn’t fill their needs for speed and the excitement they yearned for. February 15, 1948, the first ever NASCAR race was held. Since 1948, the sport of NASCAR has only gotten bigger; what had started out as moonshiners running from the cops in modified cars, to racing around dirt tracks in the late 40s, all the way to running laps around the massive track where the Daytona 500 is hosted.

So in short, NASCAR, also known as one of America’s pastimes, has always been about modifying your car in order to push it to new lengths we never knew was possible.