On the occasion of the 68th running of the Daytona 500, Dave's Car ID Service takes a deep short dive into the cultural roots of that annual event. Starting with George Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791-1794. The fledgling nation of the United States was in deep need of tax revenues to satisfy debts incurred during the Revolution. Tariffs were already high, hampering trade, and Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton promoted a domestic excise tax on the production of distilled spirits. The "Whiskey Act" was passed in 1791. This did not sit well in those hard-drinking times, especially among the Scots-Irish settlers of Appalachian Pennsylvania who had a long tradition of distilling and selling whiskey. Revenue collectors were sent to collect the excise tax and, well, a rebellion ensued. Resulting in literal tarring & feathering, along with being run out of town on a rail, like the unfortunate tax collector depicted below. That rebellion raged in and around Fort Pitt (later Pittsburgh) for the next 3 years. Newly elected president George Washington dispatched negotiators, and later militias, to quell the rebellion. It collapsed in 1794, resulting in 24 organizers being charged with treason. The Whiskey Tax would continue, and be a major source of federal revenue for the next 125 years. What does that have to do with stock car racing? Hold your horses, I'm getting to that.

Americans will use anything but the metric system

holy moly - it looks like @SenSchumer and I are smoking reefer outside a wedding...

In early 1900s, one of the most important trees in the eastern U.S., the American chestnut, was wiped out almost completely. It was everywhere across Appalachia. People built homes and barns from it, ate its nuts, and relied on it like no other tree. But by the time this photo of the Shelton family was taken around 1920, they were standing next to a dead giant, one of the last of its kind. The killer? A foreign fungus called Cryphonectria parasitica that showed up in New York in 1904. The chestnut had no natural defense against it, and the fungus spread fast, 50 miles a year, until it had infected nearly every tree. By the 1950s, about 4 billion American chestnuts were gone. Even before that, another disease had already been hurting chestnuts in southern areas. The tree was being attacked from all sides. Today, oaks and hickories fill the gap, but none had the same impact. The chestnut’s death wasn’t just an environmental loss, it changed the entire culture and ecosystem of Appalachia. © Reddit #archaeohistories

Hiatus over! #DavesCarIDService returns with a happy birthday salute to the mightiest mill of all, the Chrysler 426 Hemi, which was fired up for the first time in a secret Chrysler Corp dyno room December 6, 1963. Initially a racing-only project, it debuted at the 1964 Daytona 500 where it simply blew away the field, capturing the top 4 places. It met all NASCAR engine configuration rules of the time - basically 8 cylinders and fewer than 7 liters, or 427 cubic inches, total displacement. Incidentally that's why you see so many engines in the 421-427 range. But there was widespread griping among competitors that it wasn't really a "stock car" motor, one that you could order at a local dealership. To address the unfairness gripes, NASCAR implemented their homologation rule: in order to qualify as a "stock" motor, an engine had to be in at least 500 production cars. Thus, in 1966, Chrysler unleashed the street Hemi. A got-danged genuine Hemi-packed car you could order at the local dealership if you had the qualifying credit and relatively unlimited gas and car insurance budget. And you would be almost guaranteed to be King of the Hill in your local street racing scene. Oddly enough no Chrysler 426 Hemis ever appeared in a Chrysler; they were only in Dodges and Plymouths, in very limited numbers, from 1966-71. Including some of the wackiest muscle cars ever street-licensed, like the 1970 Plymouth Superbird (2). In the Muscle Car Era, the 426 Hemi was the apex predator. Among gearheads, the small block Chevy was the "Mouse," the big block Chevy the "Rat," but the 426 Hemi was the "Elephant." It dominated pretty much every form of racing in which it competed, particularly drag racing. So much so that even today every NHRA Top Fuel Dragster and Funny Car is powered by an engine based on the 426 Hemi, tricked out to 10,000-12,000 horsepower. Those are just mathematical estimates because there isn't a dynomometer capable of measuring it. So on behalf of motorheads everywhere, happy birthday you crazy pachyderm.

Quinn Meinerz on RJ Harvey's 1st touchdown run yesterday😤

This kid didn't meet Hulk Hogan, Hulk Hogan met him. RIP legend 🙏🏼