Is NASCAR Following the American Automobile Industry's Tire Tracks?

Detroit's Future is Influenced by Las Vegas and NASCARS's by Mexico City

After the World War that had commandered the American Auto Industry's factories and foundries to forge anti-aircraft guns and tanks the returning veterans returned from Europe and the Far East with pockets full of "combat pay" and poker winnings in the case of a young Ensign named Richard Nixon. They were eager to resume civilian life and the first major purchase, after the engagement ring for the hometown sweetheart, was going to be a new car from one of the nine American Automoble Manufacturers. Except for one little detail.

There were not any Buicks, Cadillacs, Chevrolets, Dodges, Fords, Henry J's, Hornets, Mercurys, Metros, Oldsmobiles, Plymouths or Studebakers being made; the anti-aircraft guns and tanks were still being produced to fulfill the wartime contracts inked when the war in Europe was winding-down, but it looked like the fighting was going to last another two years in the Far East. The American war planners were just as suprised at the abrupt end of the war as the enemy was! American's were capable of keeping a secret back in the 1940's, if it involved national security.

Back on the home front, the automobile assembly, engine plants, steel-rolling mills and transmission factories had to be re-tooled from making armored-plate to making the cold-rolled steel that auto bodies were made of and case-hardened gears in the transmissions that made the tires go around where the rubber meets the road. Oh yeah, that was another facility that had to be modified, the tire vulcanising plants that had been making tires for B-27 bombers had to be converted to making car tires.