"Ed Witzberger was the national coordinator of the NASCAR drag racing division," said Weis. "At the time, he ran Pittsburgh Int'l Dragway and also a circle track right near the dragstrip. He knew France from the circle track and it was Witzberger, who took the lead in putting together the drag racing program."

The NASCAR program in 1965 was pretty much a get-acquainted deal, but they had more ambitious plans for the following season. The NASCAR office with France Jr. in the lead got together with Witzberger and Weis, Maryland track owner Tod Mack, Bal Butdorf of Dragway 42 in West Salem, Ohio, Robert Eveland of Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., and a number of other track operators and hammered out a program.

The 1966 NASCAR drag race program would be highlighted by four national events, totaling $125,000 in purses, and three touring circuits. The four national events would be led off on Feb. 18-20 with the NASCAR Winter Championships at Deland Airport in Deland, Florida, and followed by the NASCAR Spring Championships, May 28-30, at Richmond Dragway in Va. The big event of the year would be the Summer Nationals, Aug. 19-21, at Dragway 42, and the season would be closed on Oct. 22-23 at Atco Raceway in New Jersey with the NASCAR Grand Finale.

In addition, NASCAR had put together a weekly tour package beginning in May and ending in early November. The two big touring circuits would be the NASCAR Fuel Circuit (a 16-car Top Fuel show), directed by Witzberger and Weis, and the Grand Stock Eliminator circuit headed by Tod Mack. NASCAR also offered a gasser circuit later in the year.

The actual operation of the events was on the shoulders of the individual track owners and their staffs. NASCAR basically handled the insurance, but little else.

Robert Eveland, who ran Maple Grove in 1966, stated, "We got the use of the NASCAR name and the insurance, but we did all the advertising, the promos and pre-event stuff, concessions, the purses, all of it. NASCAR offered to send an advisor, but we already knew how, so there wasn't much sense in doing that.

"When the circuit came to town, like the Top Fuel one, the circuit director would take a 10-percent portion of the purse, and the rest was handled by us. Overall, I thought the shows ran really well and were pretty successful. I went to a couple of Tice's (AHRA) shows and I thought our attendance and program were on a par with theirs."

NASCAR's national event eliminator structure was somewhat different than an NHRA or AHRA event. For example, at the Summer Nationals, the featured classes were called No. 1 Fuel Eliminator (16 qualified Top Fuel dragsters), No. 1 Gas Elim (16 qualified Top Gas dragsters) and Grand Stock Eliminator (classes for gas burning injected Funny Cars and FXers). In addition, at this event NASCAR ran a Consolation fuel eliminator for the Top Fuelers that qualified 17th through 32nd). No. 2 Eliminator was B/- through D/FD, and A/D, AA/C, A/C, AA/A, A/A, and BB/A; all working off handicaps. No. 3 eliminator included handicap competition for B/- through D/D, B/- through D/Altered, B/C, AA/MSP, A/MSP, AA/SR, A/SR, A/GS and B/GS. The remainder of the show was filled in with Street Eliminator, Middle Stock, and Junior Stock.

The circuit shows were melded with the individual track's program, much like one would do now with the California Injected Funny Car Circuit (CIFCA) or in the old days with the Coca Cola Cavalcade of Funny Car Stars circuit.

By midyear, according to Weis, NASCAR had 29 sanctioned tracks, making it on a par with what either NHRA or AHRA was doing in the Northeast region. At the beginning of 1966, they bought two pages in Drag News, the sport's leading weekly newspaper, for the entire year where they reported their races and advertised upcoming events, eliminating the need of putting out an in-house publication. Considering that the circuits were booked anywhere from 25 to 30 times in both 1966 and '67, NASCAR appeared to be ready to make a move in drag racing.

Not everything was perfect by any means.

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