As NASCAR racing has grown in popularity, more and more people are wanting to know more about all aspects of the NASCAR Circuit. A lot of people have heard of Dale Earnhardt Jr or Jeff Gordon. But there are a lot of things about NASCAR that many people don't know. So here is a breakdown and some information about the different divisions.



The three national divisions of NASCAR are the Nextel Chase for the Cup, the Busch series, and the Truck Craftsman series. Most people who know something about NASCAR know about the Chase. With 26 regular season races and 10 Chase races, the Nextel Cup series is watched by hundreds of thousands of people across America weekly. In it's third year, it continues to grow in popularity each year.

The Busch series is NASCAR's second highest level series. It might be compared to the minor leagues in other professional sports. But the difference is that many Chase drivers also drive in the Busch series to gain extra practice on the tracks or to work on certain things. So the Busch series has a good mix of up and coming young drivers with veterans sprinkled in. Busch races are usually held the day before Cup races at the same location except for the races in Mexico and the upcoming race in Canada. The Busch cars are similar to the Cup cars with only small differences.

The Truck Craftsman series is the third level of NASCAR racing and is rapidly becoming well attended and popular with racing fans. It's a different animal from the NEXTEL and Busch series and has it's own fan base. Running a full schedule since 1995, the truck series drivers race nearly as often as the Cup series do. With 25 races each season, some Cup contenders are racing in the truck series as a part time job. And several well known Cup racers got their name recognized in the truck series and then carried that over into the Cup series.

NASCAR's popularity is widespread and it has much more going on than you might think. Did you know that there are twelve racing series in NASCAR? The three national divisions get the most press, of course, but all over the country racers are struggling to make a name for themselves and gain national attention in hopes of moving up to one of NASCAR's three top series. NASCAR seems to offer something for all audiences and gives a wide variety of drivers an opportunity to compete and possibly move up to the next level.