NASCAR is real American racing. Born in the heyday of prohibition, the first drivers were rum runners of the era. Bootleggers escaping from the long arm of the law raced through the back roads of Georgia, Kentucky and throughout the south. When prohibition ended, the fast driving didn’t. There was still the desire to know who had the fastest car and who was the best driver. That desire to know has grown into what NASCAR has become today.
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Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France
In this history of the stock car racing circuit known as NASCAR, Daniel Pierce offers a revealing new look at the sport from its postwar beginnings on Daytona Beach and Piedmont dirt tracks through the early 1970s when the sport spread beyond its southern roots and gained national recognition. Following NASCAR founder Big Bill France from his start as a mechanic, Real NASCAR details the sport’s genesis as it has never been shown before. Pierce not only confirms the popular notion of NASCAR’s origins in bootlegging, but also establishes beyond a doubt the close ties between organized racing and the illegal liquor industry, a story that readers will find both fascinating and controversial.
“Stories of stock car racing and moonshining come to life through oral histories. . . . Real NASCAR contains an energy and respect for its subject that reveals the historian’s personal enthusiasm. Even if you have never been a NASCAR fan, you will find much to keep you reading in this intriguing history of the sport.”
–Smoky Mountain Living
List price: $30.00 Sale price: $19.80
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Then Tony Said to Junior…: The Best Nascar Stories Ever Told (Best Sports Stories Ever Told)
There is a history here, an entity that has evolved and is still evolving. And that entity has seen many remarkable events and created many legends. In “Then Tony Said to Junior…”, Mike Hembree compiles an exhaustive array of stories and digs to their roots, giving the reader an insider’s point of view and passing on previously unheard tales from the track and beyond.
From Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough’s infamous trackside fistfight during the 1979 Daytona 500 to the brash ways of relative newcomers Kyle and Kurt Busch, all eras of the sport are represented. There are numerous stories about legendary drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Sr., Darrell Waltrip, and Richard Petty, but there are just as many about those from the new era, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, and the backflipping Carl Edwards. Learn which drivers purchased a German-made amphibious vehicle for $10,500 while on a road trip; read about the fights, both on and off the track; have a chuckle at all the behind-the-scenes hijinks and pranks; and learn what the 1978 White House NASCAR dinner was really like.
List price: $22.95 Sale price: $18.36
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NASCAR Then and Now
In this unique gallery book, historical shots of people, cars, events, tracks, shops, and other NASCAR landmarks are paired with comparable modern shots to present a fascinating review of America’s top motorsport. See what Darlington looked like when it was built in 1950 compared to what it looks like now. Get a real sense of how pit stops have changed between 1949 and today. Compare a Ford stock car from 1962 with one from 2009. Nowhere else can NASCAR fans so graphically trace the evolution of their favorite motorsport.
List price: $25.00 Sale price: $18.00
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Speed, Guts, and Glory: 100 Unforgettable Moments in NASCAR History
Stockcar racing is fast becoming America’s most popular spectator sport, and now bestselling author and broadcasting veteran Joe Garner captures the most important moments in NASCAR history, including:
Dale Earnhardt, Sr.’s triumphant Daytona 500 victory
King Richard Petty’s 200th victory, with Ronald Reagan in attendance as the first president to attend a NASCAR event Jeff Gordon’s amazing dream season
The closest finish in NASCAR history–a mere .002 of a second!
Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Daytona victory–on the one-year anniversary of his father’s death on the same speedway.
List price: $26.99 Sale price: $8.32
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Then Junior Said to Jeff–: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told (Best Sports Stories Ever Told)
NASCAR racing reigns as America’s most popular sport not only because of its high-speed thrills and chills but also for the colorful characters and memorable moments this unique fraternity has produced over the past half century. Below are just a handful of excerpts from the sport’s greatest behind-the-scenes stories ever told, as compiled in the first-of-its-kind collection, “Then Junior Said to Jeff…”: “I’d rather not elaborate on that,” [Dale Earnhardt Sr.] said [when addressing the media after his seventh Winston Cup championship and being asked about the earlier death of driver Neil Bonnett], then paused again. When he looked up, there was genuine pain in his face. His voice was halting when he spoke: “I can’t go fishing in my own lake because of Neil,” he said. “Because we fished in it all the time. I can’t. . . . I’ve tried. . . . It’s Neil’s pond.” Track promoter Enoch Staley recalls a race on Junior Johnson’s home track of North Wilkesboro Speedway: “I saw something sail out of the stands and over the fence, right in front of [Johnson’s opponent’s] car. It hit the track and broke into a thousand pieces. It was a quart-sized fruit jar filled with white liquor.
Once he’d avoided the shattered glass, Johnson watched what came next with amusement.
“I saw that the law had come to the scene and was trying to arrest the guy,” he said. “There was a pretty lively scuffle going on ’til the deputies got him handcuffed and took him off.”
But that, according to Staley, wasn’t the funny part.
“Junior didn’t tell the rest of the story,” he said. “The fan that got taken to jail was a feller named Ernest Money. He was Junior’s uncle.”
List price: $22.95 Sale price: $17.21
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Nascar: The Complete History
In the past 60 years, NASCAR has taken the lead as America s most popular motor sport and has sped past hockey, golf, basketball, and baseball to become the second-most-watched sport on TV. NASCAR: The Complete History takes you on a thrilling ride through more than a century of racing, from the first closed-circuit auto race in 1896 to the creation of NASCAR in the 1940s to stars of today such as Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. This is the definitive guide to the drivers, owners, races, and cars that have made NASCAR great.
Every page is packed with incredible racing history. You ll enjoy:
Hundreds of amazing NASCAR photographs
A timeline of notable NASCAR moments from every year
Rankings, points, wins, and earnings for every NASCAR season through 2008
Details on every top-level NASCAR race through 2008
Profiles of NASCAR s top drivers
In-depth essays examining seven decades of NASCAR racing
Fascinating NASCAR trivia and anecdotes
Price: $24.98
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Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR
Thompson’s raucous account of NASCAR’s early decades raises from obscurity the “motherless, dirt-poor southern teens… in jacked-up Fords full of corn whiskey” who originated the sport that’s now the second most popular in America. Stock car racing grew up in the 1930s South, when moonshine runners, having perfected the art of daredevil driving while escaping “revenuers” hunting for untaxed whiskey, transferred their skills to the event booming in Atlanta and Daytona Beach. Loosely defined as races where the cars were totally unmodified—even though they were actually supercharged beyond recognition—stock car racing was a rawer, more redneck endeavor than AAA-sanctioned events like the Indy 500, which were the realm of rich enthusiasts driving specially built vehicles. Thompson (Light This Candle: The Life and Times of Alan Shepard) celebrates entrepreneurial ex-con Raymond Parks, wizardish mechanic Red Vogt and driver Red Byron instead of the better-known promoter Bill France, “the P.T. Barnum of stock car racing,” whom Thompson blames for moving NASCAR from its whiskey-soaked past to mainstream, logo-strewn present. The author is clearly in love with his subject, and the enthusiasm of this breathless, nostalgic account will be contagious to Southern history buffs and historically minded NASCAR fans.
List price: $14.95 Sale price: $10.17
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He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back:
The True Story of the Year the King, Jaws, Earnhardt, and the Rest of NASCAR’s Feudin’, Fightin’ Good Ol’ Boys Put Stock Car Racing on the Map
Stock car racing had long been a Southern phenomenon, but 1979 changed everything. A fight at the live, nationally televised Daytona 500 between Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough helped, especially since monstrous snowstorms over the race’s weekend essentially made the East housebound, contributing to big ratings. There was more to NASCAR’s rise to legitimacy, according to Bechtel, a senior editor at Sports Illustrated. From cowboy boots to Smokey and the Bandit, America was becoming consumed with the South’s culture, and NASCAR fell right in line. A fledgling television network called ESPN needed sports programming to fill its schedule, and NASCAR was happy to oblige. Hotshot rookie Dale Earnhardt’s fearless driving and working-class appeal landed a legend and the foundation of its future popularity. Throughout, Bechtel uses the 1979 NASCAR season as his backdrop, profiling the motley crew of racers and executives who were at the forefront. What could have been a painful juggling act becomes an illuminating, informative, and entertaining read, as the engaging and droll Bechtel is in complete control from start to finish. 8-page color insert.
List price: $25.99 Sale price: $17.15
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NASCAR For Dummies
Like its teammates in the Dummies series, NASCAR for Dummies is cleverly organized and clearly focused. Winston Cup Series driver Mark Martin is in the driver’s seat, providing a speedy tour through America’s fastest-growing sport. In typical Dummies style, NASCAR for Dummies is filled with fun stuff such as lists of the 10 greatest drivers of all time, the 10 can’t-miss races, and 10 future stars. It also contains plenty of information–from what NASCAR stands for and what makes a stock car a stock car to the rules of Pit Road and quick overviews of the 21 racetracks that host Winston Cup Series races. There’s even good, practical advice about attending races (secure lodging well in advance, decide between infield and grandstand tickets, etc.) and pointers on how to best appreciate the televised races. After reading this book, you’ll have no trouble qualifying as a NASCAR fan.
List price: $21.99 Sale price: $14.95
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Official NASCAR Trivia: The Ultimate Challenge for NASCAR Fans
NASCAR, the No. 1 spectator sport in America, brings you this exciting jam-packed trivia book that takes you around the country to each of the 20 NASCAR Winston Cup Series race tracks. From Daytona International Speedway, to the California Speedway, Pocono Raceway to the Atlanta Motor Speedway, you can test your skill and knowledge of NASCAR facts and lore.
Modeled after the NASCAR Winston Cup Season, NASCAR Trivia lets you rack up points as you answer hundreds of questions on everything including:
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drivers
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cars
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track lengths
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individual race events and highlights
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dates
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and so much more!
Tally your score at each track and see if you too have the stuff of a NASCAR champion. Drivers, start your engines….
List price: $12.99 Sale price: $11.04
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