Driving with the Devil
Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR
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4.7 • 16 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
The true story behind NASCAR’s hardscrabble, moonshine-fueled origins, “fascinating and fast-moving . . . even if you don’t know a master cylinder from a head gasket” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
“[Neal] Thompson exhumes the sport’s Prohibition-era roots in this colorful, meticulously detailed history.”—Time
Today’s NASCAR—equal parts Disney, Vegas, and Barnum & Bailey—is a multibillion-dollar conglomeration with 80 million fans, half of them women, that grows bigger and more mainstream by the day. Long before the sport’s rampant commercialism lurks a distant history of dark secrets that have been carefully hidden from view—until now.
In the Depression-wracked South, with few options beyond the factory or farm, a Ford V-8 became the ticket to a better life. Bootlegging offered speed, adventure, and wads of cash. Driving with the Devil reveals how the skills needed to outrun federal agents with a load of corn liquor transferred perfectly to the red-dirt racetracks of Dixie. In this dynamic era (the 1930s and ’40s), three men with a passion for Ford V-8s—convicted felon Raymond Parks, foul-mouthed mechanic Red Vogt, and war veteran Red Byron, NASCAR’s first champ—emerged as the first stock car “team.” Theirs is the violent, poignant story of how moonshine and fast cars merged to create a sport for the South to call its own.
In the tradition of Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit, this tale captures a bygone era of a beloved sport and the character of the country at a moment in time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
Customer Reviews
Must Read
If you’re a fan of NASCAR, this book is a must read. Told from the stories and resources from those on scene and descendants of those that were, this book gives the reader a more accurate portrayal of NASCAR’s roots
Great book!
This book is great. I've been a NASCAR fan my whole life, but didn't really know the history of it that well. This book changed that. I'd recommend it to any die hard NASCAR fan.
A Better Understanding of The South Through Stock Cars
Remarkably researched, I came to understand more about the South - why folks are the way they are and how they came to be that way - going back HUNDREDS of years by reading this book. Written by a non-racer for non-racers, the book is not cluttered with excessive racing minutiae. An excellent study of the key early players, but I got a bit bogged down in the details of who won which races. Required reading for dyed in the wool NASCAR fans. Fire up the grill, pour yourself a jar of moonshine and git readin'!