NASCAR Racing: nascar racing rules, cash purse, nascar race

Question
QUESTION: How and when was it determined that there should be 43 cars in each nascar race?

ANSWER: Hey Richard,

NASCAR used to let whoever wanted to race. Sometimes races had 60-70 racers in them.

But as time moved on and NASCAR started developing, tracks could only accommodate close to 45 pit stalls total. (Keep in mind too, that racing cost a lot of money, so that forced a lot of teams to pack things up and shut down).
NASCAR came to an agreement that races should have 42 cars. And for a while it worked.
Until Richard Petty failed to qualify for a race. A man who had won championships before wasn't in the race. So the past champion's provisional (PCP) was established. The rule saved a 43rd starting spot for a past champion. (Most recent past champion).

And that's how most believe it was set up!

Hope this helped,
Coy Jordan  

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the answer given.  It is helpful but I'm wondering how or why 42 was decided upon and when?

Answer
Hey again,

It was in 1998 that 43 was settled on. There was 36 who qualified on time trials alone, 6 provisional spots for current drivers, just in case something weird happened, and the 43rd for the past champion's provisional. The factors that went into the deciding of the original 42 was...Number of pit boxes at each track, full time teams, the cash purse for winning, and a lot of other factors, but the one they were most concerned about was safety of drivers and equipment. Through these factors NASCAR determined that 42 (now 43 with the PCP) drivers would be the standardized field.

Hope this was a little more helpful.
Coy Jordan