The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) has been around since its inaugural run down Daytona Beach on February 15, 1948. However, the first "Strictly Stock" race (which is now the current NASCAR Cup Series) wasn't held until the middle of the following year — June 19, 1949 — at the Charlotte Fairgrounds Speedway. Nine manufacturers entered cars in the race, some you would never guess were ever part of NASCAR: Lincoln, Hudson, Oldsmobile, Ford, Buick, Chrysler, Kaiser, Mercury, and Cadillac.
In fact, during the early days, all sorts of cars were allowed to race in NASCAR . Even Jeepster convertibles were given the green light (regular Jeeps were not). Over the years most drifted away from NASCAR, with Lincoln and Cadillac moving on to build some of America's finest luxury cars, and Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator to form American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1954.
That original lineup is far from what we have today, which only features Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota (whose story is interesting all its own) . Dodge is conspicuously missing from both lists and has come and gone from the NASCAR circuit more than once. It's first foray began in 1953 with Lee Petty driving a Coronet.
He won his first race in February and the championship title the following year, so its nascent NASCAR career started with a bang. Even though Dodge had a beastly winner in the late 60s and early 70s with the legendary Charger Daytona (the first stock car to hit 200 mph on a NASC.