Can someone explain the NASCAR ladder to me?

[Russfeld]

Im used to road racing, I dont understand all the various NASCAR series.


To me European road racing looks like

Formula 1
Formula F3000
Formula 3
Formula Renault
Formula Ford
Formula Super A Karting
Formula A Karting


Likewise North American road racing

CART
Toyota Atlantic
F2000, Barber Dodge, Formula Mazda
Fran-Am, Skip Barber National Championship
Skip Barber Regional Championship
SKUSA Karting, NAKA Karting, etc


So how does NASCAR and stockers go? What I know so far is

Winston Cup
Busch
Trucks
Arca(?)
Wiston West(?)/Busch North(?)


Any idea on what budgets are like below the truck series? Thanks.

[Burnsieold]

If you are looking at the very bottom to the top you'd start off at the local short tracks, alot of which are dirt. Then you would move up to the bigger local tracks, most of which are part of the NASCAR weekly racing series (the Saturday night tracks). After that you have the NASCAR touring series, i.e. Winston West, Hills Bros. All-Pro, Goody's Dash, and Bush North, From that most would move up to either the ASA or the ARCA series. Then you have the trucks, BGN then the Cup.
AS far as budgets go. I have a friend that drove the dirt tracks and he said it cost around $3k for the car and then year round caost and upkeep is about another $3k. Then if you go to the NASCAR weekly series you are looking at about $10K there (even though there are 3 levels of the weekly series in itself). Touring series will cost you around $50k and ARCA will run around $100. This is what I was told, not my firsthand knowlege other than at the local short tracks and the NASCAR weekly series. You don't have to have a NASCAR license to drive the local tracks but you do for any of the NASCAR weekly race and on up. I believe that was $185 this past year, but I might be a couple dollars off there.

[Russfeld]

Im confused by all the Hills Brothers, Goodys Dash, Hooters Pro Cup, etc. I know they're all regional, but do they use the same rules for the cars? Ie if you are a Goodys team and you have an off weekend can you go run the HIlls Bros series? On my side of the fence there tends to be a pretty common formula in each country for road racing. Like there's Formula Renault championships in England, Germany, Italy, etc that all use the same cars and tech rules so if you arent doing something one weekend you can go run other series for extra experience. Is this something you can do in the weekly racing/touring classes?

[Joe Fan]

Russfeld,

Check this thread that I posted way back: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=1152

To answer your latest question, if you live in the USA, chances are there is a track or two near you that runs NASCAR Weekly Series sanctioned events. I know that there are two tracks in my area that are within a 45 minute drive from my home that run NASCAR sanctioned events. In the South, there are probably many more in close proximity. My guess is that the rules are all basically the same with a few exceptions here and there.

[Burnsieold]

Actually they Regional series are not similiar. They all have different rules and only 2 or 3 is comparable. if you choose to run Featherlite series then there is no other Touring Series that is similiar to it closeby. Also the events are spread out enough that it would meake it really hard on the teams to get from one section of the country to the other in order to race in another series. As far as the Weekly racing events go, they are pretty much all the same, as long as they are NASCAR sanctioned. The cost has been rising and unfortunately that has been driving alot of local tracks to drop the NASCAR sanctioning. When they drop the sanctioning then they can inplement their own rules and change them at their will. Then you wouldn't be able to see great things like Hickory and Fairgorunds exchanging drivers for a race or two. When you are also on the levels of the Touring Series and on up you start having the special cars for special tracks plus some fo the Touring Series even run some tracks with restrictor plates and it takes alot of work for the guys to get the cars ready for each track they go to so they don't have as many off weekends as it might seem.