April 23, 2010
BOOK REVIEW: Ladies and Gentlemen: Start Your Engines and Read All About the NASCAR Nation in 'Chicken Soup for the Soul: NASCAR'
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
Cathy Elliott, who writes a widely distributed column on NASCAR (it runs every week on Huntington News Network), has joined the Chicken Soup people -- Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen -- to write and edit a collection of stories called "Chicken Soup for the Soul: NASCAR: 101 Stories of Family, Fortitude, and Fast Cars" (Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, 416 pages, $14.95).
Elliott is a former public relations manager for Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, a track that figures in many of the stories. She's also the ghostwriter for all of the stories from the NASCAR drivers, among them: Aric Almirola, Buddy Baker, Kurt Busch, Kerry Earnhardt, Jimmie Johnson, Bobby Labonte, Joey Logano, Casey Mears, Ryan Newman, Mike Skinner, Scott Speed, Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr., Brian Vickers, Darrell Waltrip and Michael Waltrip. The forward is by Darrell Waltrip.
If NASCAR is your trip, you'll love this book, treasuring the inspiring and moving stories by drivers, journalists and others connected with the world of big time stock car racing. If, like me, you're more interested in sports car and grand prix racing, this book might help you understand the NASCAR Nation culture.
A personal note: I've been to only one NASCAR event, a race at the now demolished Ontario Motor Speedway, in the 1980s, when I was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. I attended as a private individual, not as a journalist -- that was Shav Glick's job. I was overwhelmed by the sound and fury and the spectacle, but I remained a fan of sports car and vintage racing at places like Willow Springs north of L.A. and the sadly demolished (L.A. is a great demolisher!) Riverside Race Track. Willow Springs reminded me of the fun times I had at the race tracks of the Midwest: Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, the long-gone Meadowdale in the Chicago suburbs, Indianapolis Raceway Park, not far from the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the "brickyard." Even before that I enjoyed modified short-track stock car racing at the Rockford Speedway, about 30 miles from my home in Rochelle, IL.
Cathy Elliott helps you get behind the driver's seat with these personal tales and anecdotes from inside the race track. Famous drivers and their families, pit crews, and fans share their stories of perseverance, triumph, comebacks, and life on and off the track. I especially enjoyed one piece by a couple from the Chicago area who journeyed to Brooklyn, Michigan for a NASCAR race, only to have it rained out on both Sunday and Monday. I recall many sports car races at Road America which continued during a typical Wisconsin summer downpour: The drivers just put on their rain tires and kept going, roostertails of rain creating wonderful picture possibilities for a fan who's also an avid photographer.
NASCAR vehicles -- I don't call them "stock cars" because they're purpose-built race cars with only the profile of Fords, Dodges, Chevrolets or Camrys -- couldn't do this because they don't have headlights and they don't have windshield wipers. They are all rear drive vehicles in a front-drive world, with carburetors and all the paraphernalia of cars of a generation or two ago.
That may be the charm of NASCAR, to bring back memories of the early days of racing when the Oldsmobiles, Hudson Hornets, Chrysler Saratogas with their mighty Hemi engines, and Ford Torinos were basically the kind of cars you could buy on Monday after watching them win on Sunday.
In an e-mail to me, Cathy Elliott said that this book was created by popular demand -- and demand from Canfield and Hansen, co-founders of the Cos Cob, CT-based Chicken Soup publishing company. The first CSS NASCAR book was published in 2003.
Read this book if you're a NASCAR fan and if you're not, read it to find out what makes NASCAR the big attraction it is in its Dixie birthplace and as places as far from Dixie as the Poconos of Pennsylvania, Las Vegas and New Hampshire.
Publisher's web site: www.chickensoup.com
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BOOK REVIEW: Ladies and Gentlemen: Start Your Engines and Read All About the NASCAR Nation in 'Chicken Soup for the Soul: NASCAR'
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
Cathy Elliott, who writes a widely distributed column on NASCAR (it runs every week on Huntington News Network), has joined the Chicken Soup people -- Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen -- to write and edit a collection of stories called "Chicken Soup for the Soul: NASCAR: 101 Stories of Family, Fortitude, and Fast Cars" (Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, 416 pages, $14.95).
Elliott is a former public relations manager for Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, a track that figures in many of the stories. She's also the ghostwriter for all of the stories from the NASCAR drivers, among them: Aric Almirola, Buddy Baker, Kurt Busch, Kerry Earnhardt, Jimmie Johnson, Bobby Labonte, Joey Logano, Casey Mears, Ryan Newman, Mike Skinner, Scott Speed, Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr., Brian Vickers, Darrell Waltrip and Michael Waltrip. The forward is by Darrell Waltrip.
If NASCAR is your trip, you'll love this book, treasuring the inspiring and moving stories by drivers, journalists and others connected with the world of big time stock car racing. If, like me, you're more interested in sports car and grand prix racing, this book might help you understand the NASCAR Nation culture.
A personal note: I've been to only one NASCAR event, a race at the now demolished Ontario Motor Speedway, in the 1980s, when I was a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. I attended as a private individual, not as a journalist -- that was Shav Glick's job. I was overwhelmed by the sound and fury and the spectacle, but I remained a fan of sports car and vintage racing at places like Willow Springs north of L.A. and the sadly demolished (L.A. is a great demolisher!) Riverside Race Track. Willow Springs reminded me of the fun times I had at the race tracks of the Midwest: Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, the long-gone Meadowdale in the Chicago suburbs, Indianapolis Raceway Park, not far from the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the "brickyard." Even before that I enjoyed modified short-track stock car racing at the Rockford Speedway, about 30 miles from my home in Rochelle, IL.
Cathy Elliott helps you get behind the driver's seat with these personal tales and anecdotes from inside the race track. Famous drivers and their families, pit crews, and fans share their stories of perseverance, triumph, comebacks, and life on and off the track. I especially enjoyed one piece by a couple from the Chicago area who journeyed to Brooklyn, Michigan for a NASCAR race, only to have it rained out on both Sunday and Monday. I recall many sports car races at Road America which continued during a typical Wisconsin summer downpour: The drivers just put on their rain tires and kept going, roostertails of rain creating wonderful picture possibilities for a fan who's also an avid photographer.
NASCAR vehicles -- I don't call them "stock cars" because they're purpose-built race cars with only the profile of Fords, Dodges, Chevrolets or Camrys -- couldn't do this because they don't have headlights and they don't have windshield wipers. They are all rear drive vehicles in a front-drive world, with carburetors and all the paraphernalia of cars of a generation or two ago.
That may be the charm of NASCAR, to bring back memories of the early days of racing when the Oldsmobiles, Hudson Hornets, Chrysler Saratogas with their mighty Hemi engines, and Ford Torinos were basically the kind of cars you could buy on Monday after watching them win on Sunday.
In an e-mail to me, Cathy Elliott said that this book was created by popular demand -- and demand from Canfield and Hansen, co-founders of the Cos Cob, CT-based Chicken Soup publishing company. The first CSS NASCAR book was published in 2003.
Read this book if you're a NASCAR fan and if you're not, read it to find out what makes NASCAR the big attraction it is in its Dixie birthplace and as places as far from Dixie as the Poconos of Pennsylvania, Las Vegas and New Hampshire.
Publisher's web site: www.chickensoup.com
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