One of the biggest events on America's sporting calendar and the most important of NASACAR's racing series is the Nextel Cup Series. Nextel took over sponsorship of the NASACAR Cup Series back in 2004. The series was previously called the Grand National and later, the Winston Cup Series. After taking over sponsorship, the Cup Series was changed to give new NASACAR drivers a better chance and also to make it more competitive. The Nextel Cup "Race to the Chase" was established which added more excitement, much like a "playoff" system. After 26 races the top ten drivers in points are eligible to compete for the Cup in the last 10 races of the season. As with other series, the Nextel Cup Series rewards drivers can for wins and for laps led. Five bonus points are awarded to drivers who lead a whole lap during a race.

The Nextel Cup Series incorporates the Nextel Cup Driver's Championship and the Nextel Cup Owner's Championship, each of which operates a separate Chase for the Championship. Sometimes owner's points will differ from drivers' points over the course of a cup series. These days it is rare for owners and drivers in the Nextel Cup Series to be the same people. This is partly because the structure of the modern Nextel Cup Series races favour multiple car teams.

The youngest person to win the Cup Series is Bill Rexford, back in 1950 when the Cup Series was born. Richard Petty, son of previous Cup Series champion Lee Petty, who won twenty seven races back in 1967, is the most successful driver ever in the Cup Series. The Cup Series was born to promote the sport of racing which started out with little reward on dirt tracks. The first driver in a Cup Series to collect winnings in excess of $100,000 was Richard Petty.

Winning the Nextel Cup Series depends not only on the skills of the drivers but also on designers who

work year round on improving cars for participation in the series, and on the dedicated crews who support cars as they race for the cup. These days, crew chiefs use computer simulations, to help them judge how cars are likely to perform in the series. Most agree that the most important thing is a strong, durable engine, which can make all the difference when it comes to winning the cup.

Corporate interest in the telecommunications company was revived by Nextel's sponsorship of the Cup Series. The Sprint corporation recently purchased Nextel, creating Sprint Nextel. It's expected that next year's premiere racing competition will have it's name changed from the Nextel Cup Series to the Sprint Cup Series. is continually evolving and reinventing itself to appeal to provide increased value to it's sponsors, to provide more safety to the drivers and to appeal to the masses.

Sources:-

http://www.nascar.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprint_Nextel_Corporation