American Stock Car Championship

The American Stock Car Championship (abbreviated ASCC) is an American auto racing series, starting its tenth season as a reconstituted series.

It mainly operates within the southern United States, though it does sanction races outside that region.

History
The American Stock Car Championship started as a Southern-based stock car series. Drivers like Alan Foster, Nicholas James, and Garth McCallister, Sr. cut their teeth in the series and went on to become TM Master Cup champions.

Through the 1960s and 70's, the series gained notoriety more for what went on off the track than on it: the garage became an environment hostile to both women and minorities, discouraging both from becoming involved in the series. The paddock was also overtly Christian, and races included both pre- and post-race invocations as well as an active Bible study group. Contingency decals for the cars included an American flag decal as well as one denoting if the driver was a military veteran (two aspects still retained in the modern ASCC). The league also banned foreign manufacturers from the series, mandating that manufacturers be at least 75 percent American.

Despite this, series organizers consciously tried to bring in minority drivers. The league never (officially) banned blacks or women, but when a black driver won the pole and had his car sabotaged by a competitor so it would blow up after about 10 laps, and despite the saboteur being banned for a year, the league's reputation was cemented.

Absorption
The series often used three-to-four-year-old Master Cup cars at the end of its lifespan in the late 1970s, prompting the better-funded Master Cup to purchase the series. The series (or idea of it) laid dormant for about 30 years. But McCallister had plans for its return.

Revival
In 2009, McCallister, who by this time was running his own team, McCallister Motorsports, in the Master Cup series, remarked that he found the series' schedule for the 2010 season to be unfavorable, saying, "The series has a long history in the South. Money has taken over, and that's why there is only one race in the South. It's a disgrace to the series, this is supposed to be an American series, not some kind of international crap. We are home-brewed and we better stay that way."

McCallister, a native Texan, had repeatedly said that he did not want to be in the TM Master Cup if it continued to spread internationally and dropped American races. However, he was also instrumental in taking away the Joliet race date and bringing it to the Texas Motor Speedway. Despite the Joliet, Illinois track having more history than the Texas venue, McCallister insisted that the South should not be ignored.

"If Omecha and the TM Master Cup Series keep taking away all the Southern race tracks...if they want that, then we might bring back the American Stock Car Championship," McCallister stated.

While most pundits regarded McCallister's threat as just that – a threat – events transpired during 2010 that made some believe McCallister wasn't bluffing. The most notable events involved tests with Tremwell and Sellick Cars which used ASCC-spec cars. Further fueling speculation was a test at Atlanta in which Cyrus LaTerza drove a Mitchell & Sons car to the top of the speed charts. That particular test session saw Chris Davenport, who was scheduled to drive the No. 00 Sellick in the session, being denied a track pass. Though it wasn't certain that Alexis Rainsford was involved with the operation, ASCC officials, citing a rule prohibiting female car owners, kept the car – and by extension, Davenport – off the track. "I won't be too surprised if they toss Nikki Brillon out before tomorrow," Davenport said in an interview. (Brillon was not listed as the owner of her car, however.) "That's not right if you ask me, but they don't release the rulebook to the public, so they keep that rule real quiet. They allow cars out there that say Feminism is Demonic, so I'm not surprised."

In the 2010 offseason, the rebirth of the ASCC became a reality as it purchased the assets of the faltering RROL Elite Series, prompting most of that series' entire executive staff to resign en masse. Reaction from the now-former RROL teams was mixed: some teams immediately announced they would not return to a series under the ASCC's control, while others took a more "wait-and-see" approach.

The buyout had an unintended secondary effect: the former RROL executives promptly, alongside British billionaire Mark Vaughn, announced a new series, the Vaughn Stock Car Championship, which would begin operations in 2011. The new series assumed the mantle of the old RROL, and many teams from that series migrated to the VSCC. (For more information on that series, please see the appropriate article.)

The present
For 2012, the ASCC announced ambitious plans: it would unveil a new, more streamlined body style (in 2010 and 2011, the series used cars similar in style to the modern TM Lights cars), along with a new manufacturer: Bolden. Saar and Lenard also return, this time, using their primary marques instead of Tremwell and Sellick.

Goodyear and Wrangler Jeans signed on as co-sponsors of the series: the series' official name became Goodyear Presents the ASCC Wrangler Cup Series.

Most notably, the series introduced a controversial championship system branded as "The Chase", intended to replicate playoff formats used by traditional sports. After the 8th race of the 13 race season, the points standings would be reset, leaving 12 drivers eligible to compete for the title over the remainder of the season; any driver who won a race during the "regular season", and the top finishers in the points standings to fill out the field. This format was criticized as a means to artificially create a closer, more "exciting", championship battle, in a likely attempt to attract fans of traditional sports to racing.

The driver and team lineups were made up of both veterans of the Master Cup Series and other leagues, as well as young rookies and newcomers from the minor leagues. The ASCC set out to ensure that the cars were low-cost and that the racing would be close and competitive. It was intended to allow short track superstars to mix it up with some of the biggest names in racing. ASCC even began accepting a slightly more diverse pool of competitors, with the participation of Czech driver Roman Musico, and short tracker and model Nikki Curtis, the first woman to drive for Team Saar USA.

After a moderately successful first few seasons, however, the ASCC saw a turn in fortunes. The 2013 season was dominated by the three largest teams in the series- Team Saar USA, Ocean Motorsports, and James Dalton Racing. Then, during the season, the newly christened FARC announced new regulations for its Elite Series, utilizing new carbodies with similar specifications to the current ASCC cars. Several ASCC teams then decided during the offseason to sell off their bodies and chassis to FARC teams, to be refabriacted into Elite Series cars. Most teams now had no, or an extremely limited, amount of ASCC-spec chassis available. The series responded by adapting the chassis rules, permitting teams to run former TMCC bodies from 2007 to 2011, and limited field sizes at short tracks to 23 cars, honoring Arthur Thomas. The series also signed a new title sponsor after the departure of Goodyear and Wrangler, becoming the ASCC All American Racing Series Presented by Kenslo.

After this one year transition period, a new structure for the full-time grid and the Chase, now rebranded simply as the "Playoffs" was introduced. The grid size for all races increased to 33 cars, but positions on the grid for the full season would be awarded as "charters", split into groups of eleven among three original equipment manufacturers: Saar, Lenard, and Inglesby. The "big three" of the American automotive industry increased their investment in the series with all new chassis and bodies, remaining similar to the former Master Cup cars.

In return, the new playoff format calls for the top five drivers competing for each manufacturer in the points standings to qualify for the first round, along with the winner of the Texas 500. The top three drivers in each division in the first round then qualify for the second round, and the division leaders for the second round advance to the championship race. This effectively creates equal representation for each manufacturer in the championship battle, even when the competitive strength of each division has not always been equal.

As of 2019, many perceive the ASCC to be a similar prestige level to the FARC Lowe Dollar Series. While there is more investment from the manufacturers and sponsors among the top ASCC teams, their drivers have not received as much attention or respect from Master Cup and TM Lights teams and drivers, with the exception of Master Cup veterans such as two-time champion Tony Durbin or 2014 champion Tom Delgado.