THE WILDEST RIDE:
A HISTORY OF NASCAR

(or, How a Bunch of Good Ol' Boys Built a Billion-Dollar Industry out of Wrecking Cars)

By Joe Menzer.
Published by Simon and Schuster.

After writing something in the order of 60 reviews of Formula One books, sitting down with a history of NASCAR is a bit like taking some weird type of holiday. NASCAR is cool – the racing is close, the characters are colourful, and the races are almost invariably eventful. That said, my actual knowledge on the subject was pretty basic. This, in point form, was the sum total of my NASCAR expertise prior to reading this book.

1.  It was founded by a guy named Bill France.
2.  It has lots of driver dynasties – the Pettys, the Earnhardts, all those guys.
3.  As the American who works in the building next to me said to me once, "Man, if you go down around Charlotte, those guys are GODS!"
4.  NASCAR means banked turns. And fried chicken. And beer.
5.  Where Ron Dennis tends to express his displeasure at, say, Jean Todt, by either making a remark to the media or lodging an official protest (whichever the circumstance may warrant), key players in NASCAR (drivers, crew chiefs, etc) are more likely to walk down the pitlane and punch the other guy in the nose.

As a general history of NASCAR, I hoped that 'The Wildest Ride' would go someway to addressing the shortcomings in my lack of familiarity with the category. And, to a fair extent, it has done so. Menzer has gone to some length to construct an accurate and readable account of the development of NASCAR, and the net result is an accessible story of a sport that began with moonshine runners trying to outpace federal agents through the back roads of Southeastern USA in the 1930s, and became the multi-billion dollar showcase event that it is today.

It helps, of course, that Menzer had such great material to work with. For all kinds of reasons (eg the people involved, the social and economic context in which everything happened, the nature of the racing itself) NASCAR has a rich history, and by tapping into the people that helped make it all happen, Menzer has managed to communicate the essence of it all to schmucks like myself who have never had the opportunity to sit in the stands at Bristol, Talladega, or Daytona.

What I would have liked, though, is more contextual information. Maybe this is more of a personal observation that a mainstream one, I don't know, but while reading this book I frequently found that the author would raise and deliver his points a little too succinctly for my liking. For me, a reference to a certain element of the sport's development should signal the start of a whole new little piece of investigation into the environment that produced whatever the change may be, the types of forces that helped shape it, that sort of thing. In 'The Wildest Ride', though, it was more a case of raise the point, deliver the point, and bang, we're moving right along. If you're simply after a straight-down-the-line introduction to the history of NASCAR then this won't be a problem – in fact, this book is probably exactly what you're looking for. As much as I enjoyed reading it though, I often found myself wishing that it were a little more substantial.

As long as I'm talking about the negative stuff, I should also mention the photos. Did they really need to be reproduced entirely in black and white?

It's much easier to talk about the things that were good about 'The Wildest Ride', though, and there was a lot to like. Probably the major highlights were the anecdotes from throughout the category's history. In fact, these are so good that I could easily have sat here and typed out 1000 or so words worth of excerpts, and they alone would have sold the book. Here are a few that should give you some idea of what I'm talking about. The first concerns Wendell Scott, who emerged as the first black driver on a whiter-than-white scene in the early 1960s. Not surprisingly, Scott faced a tremendous struggle trying to find any significant degree of acceptance from the wider NASCAR community.

"Scott usually maintained his silence when confronted by adversaries, but one time, he decided to do something about a long-time critic who had repeatedly attempted to run him off tracks and frequently shouted obscenities at him and challenged him to fight. As the two drivers passed through one of the flat turns circling the football field at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, Scott's antagonist rammed into his No. 34 Chevrolet in a blatant attempt to knock him off the track and out of the race. After regaining control of his car, Scott pulled alongside the other driver and started him down through the driver's side window. Then he slowly lifted a handgun to the window, pointing it at the other driver. The coward never bothered Scott again." (p. 61-62)

Another great story comes from Leonard Wood, one of the famous Wood brothers who owned the car run by David Pearson in the early 1970s. The story begins with the Wood brothers hauling Marvin Panch's race car back to Virginia after a race in Riverside, California. As they stopped for a meal at a truck stop, a crowd began to gather around the race car.

"'There were a lot of people standing around the car, but that wasn't all that unusual when we stopped. Wherever we were or whenever it was, people always seemed drawn to the race car…so we didn't think nothin' about it. We got in the truck and left.' About halfway between Greenville and Charlotte they heard a loud rumble that caused the truck to start vibrating. Ray looked at Leonard.

'You can feel it in the truck. What was that?' he asked.

Leonard wasn't sure and eventually the noise ceased.

They continued driving until they reached Gastonia, North Carolina, on the outskirts of Charlotte, when it happened again.

Leonard rolled down his window.

'I'm thinkin' it's got to be an airplane or something going overhead,' he told Ray as he stuck his head out of the window for a better look. But he saw nothing in the sunny, cloudless sky – and again the noise and vibration stopped.

Exiting the highway as they reached Charlotte, the noise started up again. An exasperated Leonard Wood threw open his door and looked behind, where he noticed steam coming out of the exhaust pipe on the race car.

'Stop this thing!' he yelled to Ray.

Leonard hopped out and walked around to the trailer, where he could see the silhouette of a person sitting behind the windshield of the race car. Leonard peered closer.

'I looked in the window and this guy's got Marvin's helmet on and the motor's running,' Leonard said. 'Where do you think you're goin'?' he asked the stranger.

'I don't know,' replied the man from behind the steering wheel. 'But let's go.'" (p. 215-216)

With Michael Schumacher having sealed the championship with about a million races still to run, you might be looking for some kind of diversion from Formula One. If so, I'd suggest that you might want to check this book out. The same goes for anybody whose racing knowledge is limited to F1 and F1 alone. If you're ever going to diversify a little, now's the time. Racing history doesn't come much more entertaining than the NASCAR story, and in 'The Wildest Ride', Menzer has served it up in a form that's equally digestible to serious fans or casual followers. If you're content with 'the story', as opposed to 'the story behind the story', then this is a great read.