This Week in NASCAR History: January 9th - 15th

    NASCAR's deep history is surprisingly not very well known, even for avid fans; this article is meant to get fans in the know of the most notable NASCAR history that happened throughout this week.

January 1949 - NASCAR begins promoting its new chop-bodied convertible Roadster division. Their first scheduled race at Daytona is cut short due to work being done on the Beach/Road course.

January 1951 - It is announced that the NASCAR Grand National series will expand further west, beginning in 1951, with Johnny Mantz, the 500-mile Darlington race winner, is to be the Regional Director of NASCAR events in the state of California.

January 1972 - It is announced that, due to gasoline shortages, NASCAR will be reducing the amount of NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National series events down to 30, and only 250-mile or more events will be part of the schedule.

January 1975 - NASCAR announces that a new points system will be adopted in 1975, and for the first time in NASCAR, every event will be carrying an equal points value for the entire season.

January 1986 - NASCAR announces that its premier stock car racing series and its smaller division's names are to change, with 'Grand National' being taken off the Winston Cup Series and given to the late Model Sportsman division. The official names for the two leading divisions are now the NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series.