FULL SPEED AHEAD.

The article reports on the making of stock car racing as the second-most-popular televised sport in the U.S. When National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) signed a US$2.8 billion, six-year pact in 2001, it accelerated past baseball to become second-most-popular televised sport in the U.S. Although stock car racing on TV might seem like an overnight success, the broadcast coup had been in the works for years. From 1998-2003, the number of network-aired NASCAR events more than quadrupled, while the sport's overall small-screen programming nearly doubled from 1,651 hours to 3,034 hours. INSET: IN VEGAS, (UPPER) DECK IS STACKED..