How Big Rigs Changed NASCAR in a Big Way

Truck drivers love NASCAR, no doubt about it. Maybe it’s the fact that truckers enjoy watching car drivers who can actually drive. It’s such a rare thing on the road.

NASCAR drivers love truckers too. Without them, they would never be able to get to their next race. If you’ve never seen a NASCAR team truck up close, they’re pretty amazing. They are packed in a way that utilizes nearly every square inch and are organized for maximum efficiency. If you think the cars are fast, you should see how fast crews can get unloaded and ready before the race. Blinding speeds.

But way back in the day, NASCAR was a smaller, more unorganized sport of enthusiasts who literally lived their lives to drive, on and off the track. Racers didn’t always have truck drivers to take them from track to track. They just drove themselves. So NASCAR.com decided to give us a look back at how incorporating the gear truck into the equation gave the racing teams that invested in it a HUGE advantage at the finish line.

The most shocking thing about this development is – the first team to use a fully-converted 18 wheeler truck to haul the race car from track to track didn’t begin doing it until 1982. Until then, teams with the money had just been using Uhaul box trucks and an uncovered trailer. My how times have changed!

Visit this link and have a look at the video.