The Stock Car Split

Logo for the ASCC

The Stock Car Split refers to the 2021 split in the premier level of stock car racing. The split came as a result of years of mismanagement of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) by the France family and other executives, who had become increasingly disconnected from the public, drivers, teams, and broadcasters, which in turn had been driving away sponsors and fans.

The split occurred in December 2020, when several disillusioned Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) team owners, who felt that NASCAR's 2018 acquisition of ARCA had been done with the intention of sabotaging and quietly killing a competing sanctioning body, started a new sanctioning body known as the American Stock Car Championship (ASCC), aimed at providing an affordable alternative to NASCAR.

Background[]

Prelude[]

The Stock Car Split wasn't caused by a single factor, but a multitude of factors that eventually added up. The seeds of the split were arguably planted when Brian France became chairman and CEO of NASCAR in 2003. Throughout his tenure, he implemented numerous unpopular changes, including the double-yellow line rule, freezing the field when the yellow flag is shown, the postseason playoffs format, the green-white-checkered finish, the Car of Tomorrow, the overtime line, the charter system, stage racing (which was a demand from Fox and NBC to allow more commercial time), and constantly bending to Toyota's demands (such as strict gear ratio limits and low-horsepower, high-downforce packages).

In 2018, NASCAR acquired ARCA, making the ARCA Racing Series a sanctioned NASCAR series. In 2020, the old fourth-generation car bodies were rendered illegal under that year's rule package, with sixth-generation composite bodies mandated (though the underlying chassis were still fourth-generation cars). This caused costs in ARCA to increase exponentially, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic; by the time the ARCA Menards Series season resumed at Talladega in June, there were only 21 cars in the field, as many teams had folded due to a lack of racing opportunities and the exorbitant costs wrought on by no longer being able to rely on just buying old Cup or Xfinity Series cars as they had in the past (in 2008, for example, most of the cars were old Cup Series cars that had been replaced by the Car of Tomorrow), and the racing was sharply criticized as being a "freight train" with next-to-no passing, due to the 2020 rules package; also not helping was that only a select few drivers were actually able to compete due to having rich parents, and several also ran for Joe Gibbs Racing, a Cup Series team.

The Beginning of the ASCC[]

With NASCAR being radio-silent on any changes to the ARCA package, several ARCA team owners decided that the sport was a lost cause, and that the only way to fix it was by starting from scratch. On December 12, 2020, a coalition of ARCA team owners led by Andy Hillenburg (owner of Fast Track Racing, as well as a former NASCAR driver himself) announced the creation of the American Stock Car Championship (ASCC), with the first sanctioned race scheduled to be held on February 27, 2021 at Pocono Raceway.

The news was picked up by all major sporting publications, and was the main subject of that night's edition of SportsCenter. The formation of the ASCC was immediately compared to the open-wheel splits in 1979 (USAC/CART) and 1996 (CART/IRL). NASCAR initially issued no response, seemingly confident that the ASCC would fold by the middle of 2021.

On January 3, 2021, the ASCC issued a full press release, which included an overview of the organization, as well as a schedule for the first season of the ASCC Grand National Division, cars, rules, and profiles of several drivers and teams. The lineup for the ASCC's first season was comprised of ARCA Menards Series drivers (with drivers from other stock car series running part-time schedules), running the Chevrolet Camaro SS, Ford Mustang GT, and Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat (marking Dodge's return to American stock car racing after cutting factory support for all NASCAR series outside of Canada after 2012) that had been purchased from Trans Am teams (albeit with the rear wings replaced by a traditional blade spoiler), and CBS and TNT (with Allen Bestwick, Larry McReynolds, and Carl Edwards in the booth, and Ralph Sheheen, Josh Sims, and Matt Yocum as pit reporters, with Jamie Little, Regan Smith, and Vince Welch added in 2022 along with Mike Joy as the studio host) split broadcasting duties, with the coverage produced by the ASCC itself. Marathon was the fuel supplier, and Goodyear, Hoosier, and Firestone supplied tires. NBC would join for the 2022 season, with most of the 2021 NASCAR broadcast team carried over (though Krista Voda replaced Rick Allen as lead broadcaster with Allen moving to the studio and assuming hosting duties, Jeff Burton was reassigned into a pit reporter role, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was replaced by the returning Wally Dallenbach Jr. after becoming CEO of the ASCC). Toyota joined the ASCC in 2022 with the Supra and Honda followed in 2023 with the Accord. During the 2021 season, iRacing purchased the ASCC video game license, and released ASCC Racing '21 on October 28, 2021, followed by ASCC Racing '22 on October 14. 2022 and ASCC Racing '23 on October 16, 2023, all co-developed with Monster Games.

The Stock Car Wars[]

As the 2021 racing season began, NASCAR began running a social media campaign seeking to discredit the ASCC as "frauds" and "hucksters" who were using cars from "wannabe IMSA teams", while touting NASCAR as "true stock-car racing". The ASCC chose not to engage in a retaliation campaign, which earned them quite a bit of respect for not stooping to NASCAR's level.

NASCAR ran unopposed during Speedweeks and the following week, but the main challenge would come the weekend of the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, when the ASCC Grand National Division ran its first race, the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway. When Monday came, the reviews told the entire story. The Dixie Vodka 400 was described as "an uncompetitive snoozefest", while the Pennsylvania 500 was "the greatest stock car race since the 1992 Hooters 500", as the latter race had constant passing, drama on and off the track, and a photo finish that ended with Thad Moffitt beating Gracie Trotter by .0001 of a second.

By June, it was clear who was winning the Stock Car Wars. ASCC races were seeing record television viewership, and the grandstands and campgrounds were consistently selling out. Meanwhile, NASCAR was struggling to attract new fans who were enamored by the action of ASCC, whose marketing referred to their drivers as "modern-day charioteers", evoking the chariot race from Ben-Hur. Television ratings and attendance were falling drastically, and NASCAR teams were starting to ask questions. Desperate to maintain its quasi-monopoly on national stock car racing, NASCAR, by September, began inventing rule violations on the fly to justify issuing steep fines in a last-ditch effort to fund itself.

NASCAR Collapses[]

NASCAR drivers, team owners, and fans had had enough. Before the Cook Out Southern 500, most Cup Series drivers reformed the Professional Driver's Association (PDA), originally formed prior to the first NASCAR race at Talladega in 1969, and organized a driver walkout, which most team owners joined. The only teams who stuck it out were Spire Motorsports, Live Fast Motorsports, StarCom Racing, and Rick Ware Racing, which translated to eight cars. To fill the rest of the field, NASCAR had Xfinity Series drivers enter the race as scabs using the same cars they had used the previous day, leading to the unusual sight of the sixth-generation car racing alongside the Xfinity Car of Tomorrow; however, not as many of the Xfinity cars as NASCAR would have wanted entered the Cook Out Southern 500, as several Cup teams also fielded Xfinity cars, and these teams and their drivers joined the walk-out. It was yet another parallel to the first race at Talladega in 1969, when the field had been filled by Grand American cars. The race ended up being an embarrassment for NASCAR, as the Xfinity cars consistently outran the Cup cars, though it was noted for having an exciting finish between A. J. Allmendinger and Colin Garrett (who both ran the race due to Kaulig Racing and Sam Hunt Racing not joining the walk-out), ending with the latter taking his first (and only) NASCAR win.

After the race, NASCAR demanded that the Cup Series teams and drivers run the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway. The PDA issued a list of demands, all of which were flat-out rejected by NASCAR. The boycott continued, and NASCAR refused to negotiate. All sporting publications called out Jim France and other NASCAR higher-ups such as Steve Phelps and Steve O'Donnell for grossly mismanaging the strike.

The Federated Auto Parts 400 was run with what few Cup and Xfinity teams remained, again using their own cars. Unlike the Southern 500, which was redeemed by an exciting finish, the race at Richmond was an absolute fiasco. Every driver and owner had wanted to join the strike, but as lower-funded teams, NASCAR had them by the tail. To that end, they engaged in what is now known as the "Richmond Mutiny", committing the following acts during the race:

At every opportunity, drivers flipped off officials and openly swore on the radio, especially when they were heard on the NBCSN broadcast.
Spire Motorsports, Live Fast Motorsports, StarCom Racing, and Rick Ware Racing all pulled out ASCC cars, as a massive middle finger to NASCAR.
MBM Motorsports ran 2012 Xfinity Dodge Challengers for the first time since 2018, as these steel-bodied cars had been rendered illegal under the 2019 rules mandating flange-fit composite bodies in the Xfinity Series; they compensated for the heavier steel bodies by installing 1000 HP engines sourced from old fourth-generation Dodge Chargers, and Timmy Hill and David Starr ended up dominating the race, with the former winning.
Most drivers showed zero regard for their cars, and engaged in what can generously be described as a demolition derby.

NASCAR officials began issuing penalties left and right and tried parking cars, but were ultimately powerless, with the full 400-lap distance being run. By lap 127, NASCAR had had enough, and ordered NBCSN to pull the race. Fed up with NASCAR, NBCSN aired the full race regardless, and commentators Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. became increasingly off-color with their remarks.

After the "Richmond Mutiny", NASCAR released a statement the following Tuesday. Among other things, every driver and team involved with both the PDA and the mutiny were given lifetime bans (referred to by YouTuber S1apsh0es as "the Curtis Turner treatment"), and NASCAR ended its relationship with NBC and its parent company Comcast effective immediately; it was expected that the remainder of the Camping World Truck Series season would run as scheduled, with NASCAR quickly inking out a deal to air these races on the main Fox network instead of FS1 in a last-ditch effort to win back fans, as well as the Xfinity Series to run as the Grand National Series (in reference to its pre-2003 name) until a new sponsor was found. The ban on PDA-affiliated drivers was seen as NASCAR shooting itself in the foot, as the PDA included all of NASCAR's biggest names, such as Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, and Kyle Busch.

On Friday, September 16, however, hours before the Camping World Truck Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the announcement many had been expecting for months finally came: NASCAR would cease operations effective immediately. The organization's assets were immediately sold to the ASCC, which included:

NASCAR
- NASCAR Cup Series (merged into ASCC Grand National Division)
- NASCAR Xfinity Series (reorganized as ASCC Sportsman Division)
- NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (renamed ASCC Pickup Truck Division)
- NASCAR Pinty's Series (renamed ASCC Canadian Division)
- NASCAR Peak Mexico Series (renamed ASCC Mexican Division)
- NASCAR Whelen Euro Series (spun off as EuroStock Whelen Touring Series)
- NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour (reorganized as ASCC Modified Division)
- NASCAR Advanced Auto Parts Weekly Racing Series (reorganized as ASCC Local Division 1-4)
- eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series (renamed ASCC iRacing Division)
NASCAR Digital Media (renamed ASCC Digital Media)
Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA)
- ARCA Menards Series (renamed ASCC Late Model Division)
- ARCA Menards Series East and West (renamed ASCC Eastern Regional and Western Regional Divisions)
- ARCA Midwest Tour (renamed ASCC Midwest Division)
- ARCA Late Model Gold Cup Series (folded)
- ARCA OK Tire Sportsman Series (folded)
- Toledo Speedway (moved to ISC)
- Flat Rock Speedway (moved to ISC)
International Speedway Corporation (ISC)
- Auto Club Speedway
- Chicagoland Speedway
- Darlington Raceway
- Daytona International Speedway
- Homestead-Miami Speedway
- Kansas Speedway
- Martinsville Speedway
- Michigan International Speedway
- Phoenix Raceway
- Richmond Raceway
- Route 66 Raceway
- Talladega Superspeedway
- Watkins Glen International
Iowa Speedway (moved to ISC)
Road Atlanta (moved to ISC)
International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) (spun off as an independent entity)

With the folding of NASCAR, the ASCC had won the Stock Car Wars. It had taken nine months for the split to come to an end, as opposed to the CART/IRL split, which lasted twelve years. Although NASCAR's assets were now wholly-owned by the ASCC, the decision was made to keep the ASCC name instead of reverting to NASCAR, and plans for NASCAR's then-upcoming Next-Gen car were scrapped in favor of the ASCC's seventh-generation car, which was deemed much safer and more inexpensive, as well as not being what the ASCC called "an IMSA reject that isn't even good at the road courses it's supposed to be good at". The ASCC also set about mending fences with not only drivers, teams, and sponsors, but also IndyCar, as they said they would not only let IndyCar run races at these tracks, they would also give them the same amount of promotion as their own races, a move that was applauded by longtime IndyCar fans who were worried that the NTT IndyCar Series was turning into "a discount Formula One clone".

For its second season, the ASCC greatly expanded, adding many new series either reorganized from former NASCAR series, or being old NASCAR series brought over wholesale. The newly-renamed Home Depot Grand National Division also saw major schedule changes, adding several former Cup Series races including the Daytona 500, GEICO 500, Coca-Cola 600, Brickyard 400, and Southern 500. Dale Earnhardt Jr. became CEO of the ASCC, with several other former NASCAR drivers taking up leadership roles as well.