Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR

Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR | Neal Thompson | Moonshine & Fast Wheels

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Driving with the D...

	Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR Neal Thompson Three Rivers Press, 2007 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 31 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

?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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Among best racing books I've read

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.

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Moonshine & Fast Wheels

Driving with Devil is a book that is required reading in one of my Appalachian class this fall semester. It is a colorful story of the men who created the birth of stock car racing;what we now know as NASCAR. The choice of cars of the 1930's was the Ford V-8. The mechanics tinkered with the cars until they could fly across steep mountain roads at 100 miles an hour.

Ray Parks, Red Byron and Red Vogt emerged as the first stock car team. Theirs is a story of how moonshine and fast cars merged to create a new sport for the south.This book is exciting as you dig into the early history of men who dogged the law, some were captured and released. Some towns forbid some of these men to race in their towns because of their criminal background.

Driving with the Devil is a story of bootleggers whose empires grew during Prohibition, and of drivers who thundered down dusty back roads with moonshine deliveries, and out running federal agents.

A complete look at the life of Bill France and his beginning of now a multi-billion dollar empire is intertwined through out this book.

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Great insight into the beginning of NASCAR

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.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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