Books about Stock car from Amazon.com

Every NASCAR fan – at one time or another – asks the same question: Why isn’t my favorite driver winning? This is your chance to discover how much more there is to NASCAR than “Go fast, turn left and don’t crash.” If you’ve ever wondered why racecars don’t have mufflers, how “bump drafting” works, or what in the world “Let’s go up a pound on the right rear and add half a round of wedge” means, The Physics of NASCAR is for you.

In this fast-paced investigation into the adrenaline-pumping world of NASCAR, a physicist with a passion uncovers what happens when the rubber hits the road and 800- horsepower vehicles compete at 190 miles per hour only inches from one another.

Diandra Leslie-Pelecky reveals how and why drivers trust the engineering and science their teams literally build around them not only to get them across the finish line in first place, but also to keep them alive. Professor Leslie-Pelecky is a physicist in love with the sport’s beauty and power and is uniquely qualified to explain exactly how physics translates into winning races.

Based on the author’s extensive access to race shops, pit crews, crew chiefs and mechanics, this book traces the life cycle of a race car from behind the scenes at top race shops to the track. The Physics of NASCAR takes readers right into the ultra competitive world of NASCAR, from the champion driver’s hot seat behind the detachable steering wheel to the New Zealander nicknamed Kiwi in charge of shocks for the No. 19 car.

Diandra Leslie-Pelecky tells her story in terms anyone who drives a car--and maybe occasionally looks under the hood--can understand. How do drivers walk away from serious crashes? How can two cars travel faster together than either car can on its own? How do you dress for a 1800°F gasoline fire? In simple yet detailed, high-octane prose, this is the ultimate thrill ride for armchair speed demons, auto science buffs, and NASCAR fans at every level of interest.

Readers, start your engines..
Price: $12.71 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Hard Driving is the dramatic story of one man’s dogged determination to live the life he loved, and to compete, despite daunting obstacles, at the highest level of his sport.
Wendell Scott figured he was signing up for trouble when he became nascar’s version of Jackie Robinson in the segregated 1950s. Some speedways refused to let him race. “Go home, nigger,” spectators yelled. And after a bigoted promoter refused to pay him, Scott appealed directly to the sport’s founder, nascar czar Bill France Sr.
France made a promise Scott would never forget – that nascar would never treat him with prejudice.
For the next two decades, Scott chased a dream whose fulfillment depended on France backing up that promise. Persevering through crashes, health problems, and money troubles, Scott remained convinced he had the talent to become one of nascar’s best. Hard Driving documents a previously untold chapter in the history of integration, politics, and sports in America. It reveals how France, founder of the multibillion-dollar nascar empire, reneged on his pledge and allowed repeated discrimination against Scott by racing officials and other powerful figures. It details France’s alliances with leading segregationist politicians such as George Wallace, the reluctance of auto executives such as Lee Iacocca to sponsor a black driver; and the inspiring support Scott received from white drivers such as nascar champions Ned Jarrett and Richard Petty, who admired his skill and tenacity..
Price: $15.43 [Notify me when price goes down.]

From its raw beginnings on Southern dirt tracks, NASCAR smacked of a slightly depraved spectacle, as if nothing but trouble could come from the unbridled locomotion of a V8 engine. By the time NASCAR roared into the twenty-first century, it had grown into a billion-dollar sports and marketing colossus, its races attended by hundreds of thousands of fans on any given weekend from mid-February through mid-November, watched on television by the second-largest viewing audience in sports, and bankrolled by the marketing largesse of the Fortune 500’s elite.

One Helluva Ride, a full-throttle account of the rise and reign of NASCAR nation, is award-winning motorsports reporter Liz Clarke’s chronicle of how stock car racing exploded from regional obsession to national phenomenon. In covering the sport for more than fifteen years, Clarke has developed a strong rapport with NASCAR’s drivers, team owners, and hard-core fans. Through her reporting and analysis, we get to know the public and private sides of NASCAR’s most iconic figures, including seven-time champion Richard Petty, who set the standard for treating fans with respect, and the late Dale Earnhardt, whose brazen, bullying tactics wreaked havoc on the track, but whose heart was as big as Daytona’s infield.

The sports world stopped in its tracks the day Earnhardt was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Some feared that NASCAR’s soul would die with him. But it has raced on, steered by visionary promoters, the all-controlling France family (who founded the sport), and, above all, the next generation of drivers to stir fans’ passions: Dale Earnhardt, Jr., son of the NASCAR legend and now, like his father before him, the circuit’s most popular driver; Jeff Gordon, the beloved but oft-maligned outsider, bred from the cradle to be NASCAR’s winningest modern champion; and Kasey Kahne, a reluctant heartthrob whose confidence derives entirely from an accelerator pedal. Clarke also brings us inside NASCAR’s most triumphant and tragic dynasties: the Pettys, the Earnhardts, and the Allisons–and reveals how faith, family, and a deep-seated love of their sport helps them cope with grief and loss.

Clarke shows NASCAR to be at a crossroads. In pursuit of a broader audience, NASCAR has severed its sponsorship ties to Big Tobacco, abandoned racetracks in small markets in favor of speedways near glitzy major cities, and welcomed Japan’s Toyota into a sport traditionally restricted to American-made sedans. As NASCAR races toward mass appeal, some suggest it is leaving its roots behind. To others, it is boldly extending its reach from the Southern workingman to every man, woman, and child in the world.

Whether you’re one of the die-hard NASCAR faithful or just a casual follower, nobody brings you closer to the sport and business of big-time stock car racing than Liz Clarke. This book, like the phenomenon it profiles, really is One Helluva Ride..
Price: $14.08 [Notify me when price goes down.]

“Moonshiners put more time, energy, thought, and love into their cars than any racer ever will. Lose on the track and you go home. Lose with a load of whiskey and you go to jail.” —Junior Johnson, NASCAR legend and one-time whiskey runner

Today’s NASCAR is a family sport with 75 million loyal fans, which is growing bigger and more mainstream by the day. Part Disney, part Vegas, part Barnum & Bailey, NASCAR is also a multibillion-dollar business and a cultural phenomenon that transcends geography, class, and gender. But dark secrets lurk in NASCAR’s past.

Driving with the Devil uncovers for the first time the true story behind NASCAR’s distant, moonshine-fueled origins and paints a rich portrait of the colorful men who created it. Long before the sport of stock-car racing even existed, young men in the rural, Depression-wracked South had figured out that cars and speed were tickets to a better life. With few options beyond the farm or factory, the best chance of escape was running moonshine. Bootlegging offered speed, adventure, and wads of cash—if the drivers survived. Driving with the Devil is the story of bootleggers whose empires grew during Prohibition and continued to thrive well after Repeal, and of drivers who thundered down dusty back roads with moonshine deliveries, deftly outrunning federal agents. The car of choice was the Ford V-8, the hottest car of the 1930s, and ace mechanics tinkered with them until they could fly across mountain roads at 100 miles an hour.

After fighting in World War II, moonshiners transferred their skills to the rough, red-dirt racetracks of Dixie, and a national sport was born. In this dynamic era (1930s and ’40s), three men with a passion for Ford V-8s—convicted criminal Ray Parks, foul-mouthed mechanic Red Vogt, and crippled war veteran Red Byron, NASCAR’s first champion—emerged as the first stock car “team.” Theirs is the violent, poignant story of how moonshine and fast cars merged to create a new sport for the South to call its own.

Driving with the Devil is a fascinating look at the well-hidden historical connection between whiskey running and stock-car racing. NASCAR histories will tell you who led every lap of every race since the first official race in 1948. Driving with the Devil goes deeper to bring you the excitement, passion, crime, and death-defying feats of the wild, early days that NASCAR has carefully hidden from public view. In the tradition of Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit, this tale not only reveals a bygone era of a beloved sport, but also the character of the country at a moment in time.


From the Hardcover edition..
Price: $8.44 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This new title complements the new look of the Eyewitness series by taking a detailed tour of the fast-paced world of NASCAR..
Price: $9.63 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Chicken Soup for the Soul has teamed up with NASCAR to celebrate America's fastest growing sport with the release of Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul. Their collective efforts are sure to make this the next bestseller!

Michael Waltrip says, "Life is a team sport" and, indeed, auto racing is a metaphor for life. Everyone needs the support and love of their own pit crew to keep them on track and in winning form as they go through their own race every day.

Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul features 101 great stories of speed, courage, dedication and overcoming adversity. Buckle up for the fastest moving Chicken Soup for the Soul book ever as many of the sports' biggest names, including Jeff Gordon and Bobby Labonte, take us inside the race car for one inspirational and uplifting story after another.

Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul will take the checkered flag when it hits bookshelves in the spring of 2003!

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Price: $1.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Covers the latest drivers, records, and rule changes

All-new color photos highlight the fun and excitement of NASCAR

Ever wonder what's under the hood of today's stock cars? Want to know the latest about the changes in NASCAR? Top driver Mark Martin puts you behind the wheel on an insider's tour of NASCAR, offering great insights into the new drivers, sponsorship changes, safety requirements, and racing schedule — helping you get more out of every race you watch!

Discover how to:

• Understand the rules, regulations, and standings
• Identify driver skills and racing strategies
• Get up to speed on NASCAR lingo
• Enjoy racing from the stands and on TV
• Locate NASCAR tracks near you

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Price: $4.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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.".
Price: $10.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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