Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
70 free NASCAR trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
67 free NASCAR trivia questions with answers. NASCAR started in a hotel bar in Daytona Beach in 1947 and grew into the biggest spectator sport in the American South. This quiz covers the whole run: the founding and the first Strictly Stock race, the legends (Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Cale Yarborough, David Pearson), the tracks (Daytona, Talladega, Bristol, Darlington, Martinsville), the rules that changed the racing (restrictor plates, the Chase, the Next Gen car) and the modern stars from Kyle Larson to Ross Chastain. It opens with the easy stuff, like Earnhardt's car number and the longest race on the schedule, and works up to questions for people who know who won the first Southern 500 and why Darlington is shaped like an egg. If you host a race-week trivia night, the whole set is free to lift, and it works just as well as a solo test. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and primary sources such as the tracks' own histories, and each question shows its source underneath. No recycled listicle errors.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was NASCAR founded?
1948
The organizing meetings ran through December 1947 and the paperwork was signed on February 21, 1948, a week after the first sanctioned race on the Daytona beach course.
Q 02The December 1947 meetings that formed NASCAR were held in the Ebony Bar of which Daytona Beach hotel?
Streamline
The talks took place in the Ebony Bar on the hotel's rooftop, and the Streamline still operates on Atlantic Avenue today.
Q 03Who founded NASCAR?
Bill France Sr.
"Big Bill" was a Washington, D.C. mechanic who moved his family to Daytona in the 1930s and went on to build both Daytona International Speedway and Talladega.
Q 04Who won the very first race of NASCAR's top division on June 19, 1949?
Jim Roper
Glenn Dunaway crossed the line first but was disqualified for illegal rear springs, handing the win to Roper, who had driven his Lincoln to the race from Kansas.
Q 05What was NASCAR's top division called in its first season, 1949?
Strictly Stock
The name meant exactly that: showroom cars with almost no modifications allowed, which is why the first winner was disqualified over his springs.
Q 06From 1971 to 2003, NASCAR's top series carried the name of which cigarette brand?
Winston
The R. J. Reynolds deal came just as tobacco advertising was banned from American television, so sponsoring a series was a way to keep the brand on screen.
Q 07Which drinks brand was the Cup Series title sponsor from 2017 to 2019?
Monster
It was the last title sponsor of the top series; since 2020 it has simply been the NASCAR Cup Series with a group of 'premier partners' instead.
Q 08Beginning in 2026, NASCAR's second-tier national series took the name of which sponsor?
O'Reilly
The series had been the Busch Series, the Nationwide Series and, from 2015 to 2025, the Xfinity Series.
Q 09Who won the inaugural championship of NASCAR's pickup-truck series in 1995?
Mike Skinner
The trucks were called the SuperTruck Series for that first season only, and their first race was run at Phoenix on February 5, 1995.
Q 10Where is the NASCAR Hall of Fame, opened in 2010?
Charlotte
It sits in uptown Charlotte, a short drive from the race shops of most Cup teams, and its inaugural class was inducted the day after the 2010 All-Star Race.
Q 11Which NASCAR pioneer, credited with discovering drafting at the 1960 Daytona 500, got a Reagan pardon for moonshining?
Junior Johnson
He had spent a year in an Ohio federal prison for running a still; the pardon came in December 1986, two decades after he retired from driving.
Q 12Who became the first Black driver to win at NASCAR's top level, at Jacksonville in December 1963?
Wendell Scott
Officials initially flagged another driver as winner and only awarded him the victory hours later; he was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015.
Q 13Greased Lightning, the biopic of NASCAR's first Black race winner, starred which comedian?
Richard Pryor
Q 21Who won the 2022 Daytona 500, the first points race for the Next Gen car?
Austin Cindric
The win came in just his eighth Cup start, driving the No. 2 Ford for Team Penske, whose owner Roger Penske was celebrating his 85th birthday that weekend.
Q 22How many Cup Series races did 'the King', Richard Petty, win in his career?
200
Nobody else has reached 110; the total includes seven Daytona 500s and seven championships, and his final start was the 1992 season finale at Atlanta.
Q 23In 1967, Richard Petty set a record by winning how many consecutive races?
10
He won 27 of the 48 races he entered that season, both still records for a single year.
The film played loose with the facts, but its subject was a Danville, Virginia, mechanic who ran his own team on a shoestring for more than a decade.
Q 14Who was named winner of the inaugural 1959 Daytona 500, three days after the photo finish?
Lee Petty
Beauchamp was sent to victory lane as the unofficial winner, and the reversal came only after photographs and newsreel footage were studied.
Q 15How many laps does it take to complete the Daytona 500?
200
The 2.5-mile tri-oval makes the math simple, and since 1982 the race has opened the Cup season rather than sitting mid-schedule.
Q 16The Daytona 500 winner receives a trophy named after which General Motors design chief?
Harley J. Earl
The trophy has been handed out since 1997 and depicts the Firebird I concept car, an Earl design that also served as the 1959 race's pace car.
Q 17The 1979 Daytona 500 was the first 500-mile race broadcast live flag-to-flag. On which network?
CBS
A huge snowstorm had trapped much of the East Coast indoors that Sunday, so millions of first-time viewers watched the brawl unfold live.
Q 18The 1988 Daytona 500 produced the race's first father-son one-two finish. Which family?
The Allisons
It was also the first Daytona 500 run with restrictor plates, and the father beat his son by about a car length.
Q 19Which driver got his first Cup win, in his 463rd start, at the 2001 Daytona 500?
Michael Waltrip
It remains the longest wait for a first win in series history, and the celebration was cut short by the news that his car owner had been killed on the final lap.
Q 20Who won the 2011 Daytona 500 the day after his 20th birthday, becoming the race's youngest winner?
Trevor Bayne
It was his only Cup win in 187 career starts, and it gave the Wood Brothers their first victory in a decade.
Q 24In Pixar's Cars, Richard Petty voices Strip 'The King' Weathers. What model of car is the character?
1970 Plymouth Superbird
It is the winged Plymouth Petty actually raced in 1970, painted in his signature Petty Blue.
Q 25Dale Earnhardt's black Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing carried which number?
3
The number and the GM Goodwrench black paint became so linked to him that fans still hold up three fingers on lap three of the Daytona 500.
Q 26Dale Earnhardt finally won the Daytona 500 in 1998. On which attempt?
20th
Crew members from every team lined pit road to shake his hand on the way to victory lane; he had lost the race in every way imaginable, including a flat tire on the last lap in 1990.
Q 27Which safety gear, which Dale Earnhardt had refused to wear, did NASCAR mandate in October 2001?
HANS device
The head-and-neck restraint had been available for years, but most drivers found it uncomfortable until Earnhardt's death made it non-negotiable.
Q 28Dale Earnhardt was born in which North Carolina town?
Kannapolis
The mill town's minor-league ballpark later became home to the Kannapolis Intimidators, named in his honor.
Q 29Who took over Dale Earnhardt's seat and won at Atlanta three weeks later by 0.006 seconds?
Kevin Harvick
The car was renumbered from 3 to 29 and repainted white; he went on to win the 2014 championship and retire with 60 Cup wins.
Q 30Jeff Gordon's rainbow-liveried DuPont Chevrolet carried which number?
24
Gordon was born in California, raised in Indiana and signed by Hendrick in 1992; his 93 wins are third all-time.