Masculinity, Hierarchy, and the Auto Racing Fraternity

The burgeoning popularity of NASCAR Winston Cup stock car racing promotes the growing association between entertainment, advertising, and the public enactment of gender roles. This article offers consideration of the competitive combination of fraternal institutions and technology that produces such a distinctive, influential entertainment spectacle. Such competition—in particular, the crescendo of pit stops—promotes the products of sponsors as well as influential models of masculine social conduct and collective behavior. Unlike other masculine rituals, the actions of stock car racers are meant to have direct association with our lives. Woven throughout these exemplars is the technological Doppelgänger: the race car. Both a mode of association and means of distinction between fans and racers, the race vehicle emerges as a multifaceted social construct reflecting the intentions of advertisers, the interests of the racing fraternity, the expectations of fans, and the regional roots of stock car racing.