You will no doubt have heard of NASCAR, but do you know what it means and how much do you know about it? In this short article I will give you a short history of NASCAR.

NASCAR is an acronym for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. Amazingly, it was begun as a family business in 1947 by Bill France Sr. and is still family owned and family managed. It is by far the largest sanctioning business for stock car racing in the United States and the three largest racing series that it approves are: the Sprint Cup, the Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck Series. In deed, NASCAR sanctions more than 1,500 races at more than a 100 race tracks in thirty-nine states.

If your fantasy basketball draft is coming up and you’ve been fortunate enough to get the first pick this year, the good news is that you’ll end up with a great player who should carry your team to great levels of success.

While there are some top-notch players at the top of the pack, it may be difficult to figure out who might best suit your team. Depending on the stats you’re targeting, you may want to go with one of the following players.

Neftali Feliz: Any player that can regularly pitch 100 mph fastballs has the chance to dominate in the majors. As long as his arm stays strong, he can easily do this.

Gordon Beckham. A true five-tooler in every sense of the world when it comes to baseball. From fielding, to hitting, to speed (which happens to be exceptional), Beckham has one of the brightest futures in major league baseball.

Justin Smoak – Man, this guy is a big bopper. He has power and he has a glove. I wouldn’t be surprised if he won a few home run derbys before it’s all said and done. He will be a huge impact player.

South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway is an egg shaped terror that has become known as the track too tough to tame. If thats true, David Pearson came pretty close–during his illustrious career, he posted 10 victories and 12 poles at Darlington. These are both records for one of NASCAR’s most unforgiving tracks. Pearson’s ability at Darlington bordered on the unreal, and he was able to follow the conventional wisdom about performing well there better than anyone. The old saying is that you need to race the track, not the other drivers, but that’s a lot easier said than done. Pearson, however, made it look easy.

The offensively struggling Kansas City Chiefs have finally found a way to win-play a team with a more stagnant offense than their own. The Chiefs gave Todd Haley his first win as a NFL head coach on Sunday with a—6 win over the Washington Redskins. Kansas City won despite not scoring a touchdown, compiling their– points via 4 Ryan Succop field goals and a game ending safety.

Behind a career day for quarterback Matt Schaub, the Houston Texans erased a 17-14 halftime deficit to score– points in the second half and defeat the host Cincinnati Bengals 28-17. Schaub threw for 342 yards and 4 touchdowns against one interception in the solid road victory. Against a team that had won three straight games in the final seconds, Houston never gave Cincinnati the chance to create any late drama.

The Detroit Lions nineteen game losing streak is over. On Sunday afternoon at Ford Field in Detroit the Lions held on for a 19-14 win over the Washington Redskins. The Lions hadn’t won a game since December 23, 2007 and had already tied the second longest losing streak in NFL history. Their run of futility included a 0-16 mark in 2008, the first winless season since the NFL expanded its schedule to sixteen games.

The Arizona Cardinals haven’t looked anything like a Superbowl team in the NFL preseason. They entered their final exhibition contest against the Denver Broncos looking for their first win. The Broncos controlled the contest on both sides of the ball en route to a 19-0 shutout victory over the struggling Cards. Denver managed to improve their preseason record to 1-3, while Arizona ended the exhibition campaign winless at 0-4.

Entering the year, the Bengals defensive unit looked to be much better. But the doubt remained whether they might be able to overcome a few of the deficiencies of the 2008 year’s team. Let’s break down the three essential facets as I see things.

The team hardly ever got to the quarterback in the 2008 year, and when they were able to, it ordinarily came from the linebacker position.

At some point in the game versus Denver on Sunday, the team registered three sacks, all of which came from the defensive front. DE Antwan Odom recorded two sacks, including one large one in the 4th quarter, which knocked the Broncos out of field goal position.

Success in the NFL mandates that even when teams aren’t playing their best they need to find a way to win. The Miami Dolphins found a way to win ugly in their NFL preseason battle of Florida on Thursday night. After spotting the Bucs a 6-0 lead, Miami used a late first half field goal and scored the only touchdown of the second half to comeback for the 10-6 win.

A starting QB battle in Tampa was the biggest storyline of the game and veteran Byron Leftwich appears to have gained the edge over Luke McCown. Bucs coach Raheem Morris gave little indication as to his preference in postgame comments: