When many people hear of NASCAR, they associate with Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin, just to name a few drivers. The face of NASCAR has changed drastically, since it started in 1945. But a lot of the changes have happened in the last 20 years. Rough driving and fighting, the safety of drivers, and the popularity of the sport have changed the face of NASCAR over the last 20 years.
One of the changes in NASCAR has been the rough driving and fighting. There has been more fighting now vs. 20 years ago. Twenty years ago a driver would get spun out, and the driver would either get out of the car, or would keep going around the track. But now the driver will get out and point out who spun them out, or they will go up beside them on the track and hit them. Twenty years ago drivers would get out and would actually fist fight, but now they will pull up besides the other driver and ague or get out and yell. Owners are getting upset, because the drivers often use their cars to fight instead of their fists.
One of the other things that has changed, has been the safety of the drivers. Safety wasn't really an issue until three years ago, when Dale Earnhardt was killed in a wreck at Daytona. Now most of the drivers wear a full faced helmet. Earnhardt was wearing an open faced helmet when he was killed. When NASCAR first started of even 20 years ago, drivers didn't wear many seat belts, because they weren't driving at a high rate of speed. But now they wear seat belts that hold them into the seats, because of how fast they are driving and the amount of gravity that is forced down. They also wear a head and neck restraint, which will support their head and neck if in a bad wreck. The head and neck restraint wasn't mandatory until Dale Earnhardt's death. .
Many people think the popularity of the sport has changed the face of NASCAR. Twenty years ago it was hard to find a race track with a stadium that was packed full.