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Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR | 
 enlarge | Author: Neal Thompson
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.41
You Save: $6.54 (44%)
New (30) Used (15) from $6.13
Avg. Customer Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 31022
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 1400082269
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.720975
EAN: 9781400082261
ASIN: 1400082269
Publication Date: August 28, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
“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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 Great insight into the beginning of NASCAR August 13, 2008
Its no surprise that while baseball/basketball/and football games are usually playing to semi-packed crowds, NASCAR is continually selling out short tracks and superspeedways that hold 160,000 people.
NASCAR is exciting. And contrary to the naysayers, it requires a lot of skill and knowledge of not only racing, but engineering, aerdoynamics, and overall car mechanics.
But where and when did NASCAR start? Neal Thompson does a great job in tracing back the early days of southern automobile racing in the 30s and 40s when the sport was led by whiskey runners who drove moonshine from the small towns of dawsonville and dahlonega down to the bigger city of Atlanta. Thompson reveals the lives of some of these drivers (Lloyd Seay, Roy Hall, Red Byron, Fonty Flock), mechanics (Red Vogt) and car owners (Raymond Parks) showing the glorious and not-so glorious moments for each of the early stars in driving.
A large part of this book focuses on the man credited with starting the organization of NASCAR: Mr. Bill France. France made his move from an okay driver to an outstanding and often times dirty promoter for the sport of racing. The book chronicles the trials France had to deal with when starting NASCAR (competition with other racing leagues, accidents at the races, financial problems).
The book also shows how some tracks got started (Atlanta Lakewood Speedway, Daytona Beach and Road Course, Charlotte Speedway, Columbus Speedway and more)
Driving with the Devil is truly fascinating. The beginning of NASCAR was fueled with competition, wild characters, and some truly great stories.
I would highly recommend this book to the NASCAR fan looking to read about the history of the sport.
 Sorry but I wouldnt recommend it to anyone! July 23, 2008
Sorry but I wouldnt recommend it to anyone!
Rumuors and hearsay, no useful information, for me at least. I got really bored after 100 pages.
Among best racing books I've read July 18, 2008
As a 30+ year fan of NASCAR, I've found very few in-depth resources for the formative rough-and-tumble days of stock car racing. What few I have found have been incomplete, proven to be inaccurate, shallow in coverage, or repeats of someone else's writings. And NASCAR hasn't helped any as they've generally turned a blind eye to the years before the France family took control of the sport. But not this time. Thompson's book is great. Easily among the top 5 books I've read about racing. His research and interviews are well documented. And the stories are relayed with the appropriate drama without going over-the-top. Highly recommended.
 Interesting but lots of inaccuracies July 6, 2008
I purchased the book for a person who is a NASCAR fan and knows the insides of car engines. He liked the idea of the whole book, but felt it had a slow beginning. He continually noted many inaccuracies in the details of how cars work, how parts were modified and which engines were in which cars. His comments included it was very unprofessional of an experienced author to not check his facts and terminology before publishing. Yes, the book is not too detailed to be fun for a non-mechanic to read, but it seems irresponsible to relay information and details that are not true. Those of us who don't recognize incorrect information will be under the assumption that what they read is correct, and that seems a real disservice to all readers.
I am not a Nascar fan May 19, 2008
But a fan of history and racing in general and this book is in one word - EXCELLENT.
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