There are thousands of race car drivers across the United States who will never get the opportunity to race for a NASCAR Cup Series championship.

However, that doesn’t mean they can’t race for a NASCAR championship at the local level.

The NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series sanctions more than 40 race tracks across the United States and Canada and offers drivers the opportunity to race for track, state, regional and national championships.

Tom Hearst was crowned the inaugural NASCAR Weekly Series Division I national champion in 1982. He was followed through the years by some of the best local racers in the U.S., including five-time champions Larry Phillips and Philip Morris, four-time champion Lee Pulliam, Mike Alexander, Ted Christopher, Barry Beggarly and, most recently, Josh Berry.

However, there is much more to the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series than championships. For promoters, working with NASCAR offers a bevy of benefits.

“There is something in it for everyone,” said Kevin Nevalainen, senior director of Weekly Racing Operations for NASCAR. “How a competitor might look at the program might be different than how a promoter looks at it. Within the promoter groups, there is an assortment of different types of promoters across the country.

“I think each of them that are in our program, they might be in it for a different reason. They may find the competitor point funds are a great asset to them in promoting to their drivers. A different track may look at all of the different ancillary programs, the name recognition, the brand, maybe that’s why they’re signing up to be NASCAR sanctioned.”

When a promoter signs to be a part of the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series, the track and its competitors gain access to a number of additional programs. One that stands out to Steve Britt, owner and promoter of Virginia’s Dominion Raceway, is the insurance package offered by NASCAR.

“If a driver is injured here and they don’t have medical coverage, then NASCAR has a policy that gives them some relief if they have some medical bills,” Britt explained. “That’s a great value.”

Bill McAnally, owner of the Bill McAnally Racing team that competes in the ARCA Menards Series West division, promotes All American Speedway in Roseville, Calif. He agrees that NASCAR’s insurance policy for local racers is one of the biggest benefits of being a NASCAR-sanctioned race track.

“As a promoter, the insurance that I can get being a NASCAR weekly track is phenomenal,” McAnally explained. “I couldn’t afford to get that type of insurance for my competitors.”

That’s just one aspect of NASCAR’s involvement. Another is access to major sponsors and branding from companies such as Advance Auto Parts, which signed to sponsor NASCAR’s weekly racing program last year.

“It opens the doors to a lot of corporations that we get to deal with that are in the NASCAR family,” McAnally said. “They’ll come in and do a night at the races. Whelen supplied lights for our track. It gives us an opportunity to build relationships through other partners of NASCAR.”

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