The American Speed Association (ASA) is a sanctioning body of motorsports in the United States formed in 1968. The Association was based in Pendleton, Indiana, and later in Daytona Beach, Florida. The ASA sanctioned asphalt and dirt tracks in their ASA Member Track program along with racing series in the United States and Canada.
The ASA was most famous for a national touring series which began in 1973 but was discontinued in 2004 due to financial difficulties. In 2005, ASA became primarily a short track sanctioning clearinghouse under the leadership of Dennis Huth.
The cars from the ASA National tour also raced in England in the now-defunct Stock Car Speed Association (formally ASCAR).
On December 10th, 2022, racing promoter Track Enterprises announced that the ASA would make a return to sanction the 2023 ASA STARS National Tour, a super late model racing series, under a licensing agreement with ARCA. Previous to the announcement, the organization had not been active since 2014.
ASA National Tour
The national touring series used late model racecar body styles, where they raced primarily in the Midwest. Many series races were televised on several cable channels (especially The Nashville Network) from 1991 until 2004.
ASA is notable as the only nationally touring stock car series that used passenger car technology for its racing engines. Unlike NASCAR, which up until 2012 required carbureted engines for all its nationally touring series, ASA required fuel injection in all of its engines. During the mid-1980s, it also became one of the first stock car groups to offer a six-cylinder, lower-price alternative to the popular V8 engines, designed for less power but more race-capable for drivers. Following the 2000 rule changes, it was also known for introducing crate motors to a national audience. (NASCAR adopted crate motors in 2006 for the Grand National Division.)
MTV lawsuit
In 1991, Gaylord Entertainment (owners of The Nashville Network) and an independent production company, Group Five Sports, signed an agreement where the ASA would add live race broadcasts to their schedule.
The first live ASA ACDelco Challenge Series race was held in June 1991 at Nashville Speedway USA. The race featured NASCAR star Darrell Waltrip (who won the ASA's first Challenge of Champions race in 1972) defeating ASA regular Bob Senneker. The exposure led to national television coverage for the entire season by TNN and Group Five doing the production.
In 1999, CBS (which purchased TNN in 1997) officials announced the purchase of 25% of the American Speed Association from owner Rex Robbins in exchange for live television rights to the entire ASA ACDelco Series schedule for five years. CBS made this move after losing coverage of NASCAR races, and the network chose to market the ASA on its CBS Cable family of networks (TNN and CMT).
When Viacom took over TNN in 2000, CBS Cable operations were shut down as TNN's Charlotte and Nashville offices were closed and the signals transferred to MTV Networks for the creation of a channel, Spike TV. At the time, MTV Networks honored its remaining motorsports contracts signed by CBS.
In August 2001, MTV ended its association with ASA and the World of Outlaws (which also had a TNN contract signed by CBS management) by announcing they would tape delay the popular sprint car Knoxville Nationals, and also tape delay the two remaining ASA ACDelco Series races. The ASA filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop the tape delays, but dropped the lawsuit after MTV agreed to air one of the two races in the lawsuit live. MTV terminated the five-year CBS contract after less than 20 months.
Brian Robbins, the son of the ASA founder Rex Robbins, blasted MTV, saying, "It appears new (MTV) management does not have the same vision for the partnership as we had with TNN (CBS Cable) at the time we made the agreement."
Sale to Steve Dale
The 2003 ASA National Tour season had drastic changes because of the move of television coverage to the lower-rated (but motorsports-focused) Speed Channel. Robbins ended his involvement with ASA.
Car owner Steve Dale, along with a group of investors, purchased the ASA at the end of the 2003 season, and began massive changes for 2004 hoping for further expansion of the series.
The ASA then further expanded its Member Track program, hoping to deliver tracks to their side with a lower sanctioning fee than rival NASCAR's sanctioning fees. ASA did not have the high-dollar or high-exposure status NASCAR's Dodge Weekly Series offered.