Journalist and NASCAR fan Hinton accelerates along 70 years of raceway history in a volume that bonds track groupies, folk-genius mechanics, paraplegics, NASCAR martyrs, AIDS, drugs, overnight millionaires, generational rivalries and family feuds at 200 mph into a coherent tale for the sport's dedicated—and growing—fan base. Hinton has had plenty of practice explaining auto racing culture to America for the last 25 years, first for Sports Illustrated
and now for the Tribune News Services. After all, he was there "when NASCAR stirred as a sleeping titan of inexplicably charismatic appeal to the mainstream, when it flexed and stretched and went to finishing school and headed relentlessly uptown." Hinton manages to contain all the local color, roaring noise and background forces—social, economic, and otherwise—in a choppy but continuously attractive story. This is Daytona Speedway not as a structure of concrete and rubber but as a sort of roaring motorsport Mount Olympus, "the carotid artery through which nearly every essential element of motorsports has passed through at one time or another." Some elements pass through more loudly and colorfully than others; historical accounts of speed trials on the beach at Daytona in the 1920s and '30s, for example, may not excite today's spectators. The names and stories that stick are NASCAR names of the last 20 years: "man of the people" Richard Petty, tough guy Cale Yarborough and the late hero, Dale Earnhardt. Hinton's vignettes are sharp and his connections are exciting, split-second glimpses of NASCAR culture. (Nov. 21)
Forecast:Yet another to be placed on the swelling NASCAR shelves—and one that will sell nevertheless.
