NASCAR Awards Banquet

Prior to that it was held in Las Vegas at the Wynn, in New York City at the Waldorf Astoria and in Daytona Beach, Florida at the Plaza Hotel.

NASCAR President Bill France Jr. had the idea of making the event bigger as the sport was growing across the United States.

[1] In 1981, it was moved to New York City at the Waldorf Astoria, and the ceremony was held in the Starlight Roof and the event was opened up to the media for the first time.

The championship-winning driver (starting with Darrell Waltrip in 1981) would also appear on daytime television shows filmed in New York City during Champion's Week, giving NASCAR even more exposure to Americans.

His 2013 monologue controversially included numerous digs and jokes at Danica Patrick, who had just finished her first full-time season in the Cup Series.

In a number of the following years, NASCAR has had its NBC commentators, which broadcast the event on TV, handle the main hosting responsibilities instead of a celebrity, primarily Rutledge Wood, who notably would wear plaid suits to the ceremony.

[7] The cars would drive through and do burnouts on Nashville's Broadway during a day of champion's week the same way they had done it on the Las Vegas Boulevard and in Times Square.

When Donald Trump became a candidate for president in the 2016 United States presidential election (which he would end up winning), Truck Series title sponsor Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis announced that he and his company would not support the awards banquet if it was held there again and urged NASCAR to move it to another venue in light of Trump's numerous controversial statements about immigrants on the campaign trail.