~ Favorite Racing Resources ~

I've been following Winston Cup racing since 1974. My uncle told me I needed to pull for Richard Petty since he had pulled for him since 1961. I was an impressionable 9 year old kid who hung on every word he spoke - so Richard Petty became my favorite driver, period. And the rest is history. I've never been a big stick & ball fan - just racin'. Over the years, I've read plenty of books about racing. Most have been just a rehash of what I already knew or another author had written. However, a few books distinctly stand out among the crowd. If you haven't already, I highly recommend any or all of the following books.

Forty Years of Stock Car Racing - Greg Fielden, Galfield Press
The original series is a 4 volume set of books covering NASCAR's Winston Cup (formerly Grand National) series from its inception in 1949 through 1989. Greg followed up the initial series with "Forty Plus Four" which covered 1990-1993. These books include commentary and statistics on every race since the first NASCAR sanctioned event in 1949. A "must have" for trivia geeks (like me).

Richard Petty: The Cars of the King - Tim Bongard and Bill Coulter, Sports Publishing, Inc.
This book has photos of every car fielded by Petty Enterprises for Richard Petty, several pictures of cars built for Lee and Kyle Petty, and a few pics of the drivers who drove for Petty Enterprises such as Jim Paschal, Pete Hamilton, Rick Wilson, Wally Dallenbach, and Bobby Hamilton. It also has a brief synopsis of each season.

The World's Number One, Flat-Out, All-time Great Stock Car Racing Book - Jerry Bledsoe
You may have to look hard for this one. I found my copy in paperback at a used book store yeeeaaarrrrs ago. However, I read where it was reissued within the last year or two. You may be able to order it from Amazon. The book centers around events leading up to the Southern 500 in the late 1960s. Bledsoe relays some great anecdotes about some of the old characters like Jabe Thomas, Curtis Turner, Wendell Scott, etc. "Easily the best handling of the subject," said Stock Car Racing Magazine. "One of those few books you're going to want to pull out about once a year and read again. Or pass on to a friend. Or keep in the glove compartment of your car like a road map of your memories."

American Zoom - Peter Golenbock, MacMillan Publishing
Once again, this is a book based on various stories told to the author. He covers a lot of territory in the book's 473 pages. He goes back to the "good ole days" with stories from Ralph Moody and Smokey Yunick and more current personalities such as Alan Kulwicki and Tim Richmond. The book also includes chapters on drivers who are seldom on the front page such as Dave Marcis and Derrike Cope.