Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Two years ago I'd never been to a race. Now I've attended four and watch every weekend. Picked this book up in order to feed my now voracious appetite for all things racing. Guess what...it filled me in on the less well-known formative years of stock car racing. For those who think the France family created stock car racing and NASCAR as well and are unwilling to bend from that view, then this book will likely upset them. On the other hand, if you're open-minded and willing to question the so-called accepted theory of NASCAR's creation being soley by Big Bill and want to know more about the shine runners who helped make the sport popular, then you'll find this book immensely entertaining. Thoroughly enjoyed the book, and felt educated, enlightened, and entertained all at the same time.

Being a novice to Nascar I have been reading everything I can get my hands. This book, "Driving with the Devil" is "straight up". It gives so much more insight to the beginnings of Nascar than any other book I have read. Some things I didn't even know & some things surprised me, it put together pieces of my own heritage. Amazing book, I recommend it highly.

What mystifies me is that I am not a racing fan in the least but this book seemed to call to me from the library shelf. As a new resident of Georgia, coming from NY, I felt that I needed to do the "when in Rome..." thing and soldier through the book. No need to labor, as it had me in its grip from the first page. It answered all my questions about all things southern, with a vivid description of life here in the last century as well as an unbelievably human story of the men who made moonshine and how their driving skills translated well into car racing at the outset of the stock car boom. It also introduced me to a unique man, a former master bootlegger named Raymond Parks, who, while not generally a race car driver, was as responsible as anyone for NASCAR being in existence today. His deep pockets kept many drivers racing and his mechanic, a genius named Red Vogt, actually came up with the name NASCAR. That Bill France used legal maneuvering to claim the NASCAR brand for himself and his family doesnt diminish what Raymond Parks did for the sport, and even for France himself who often found himself in need of financial help from the former moonshine baron Parks. Highly highly recommended for anyone who likes a good tale well told.
A footnote--Raymond Parks still lives and works in Atlanta, owning , fittingly, a liquor store on Northside Drive. He is 93 yrs old. I stopped in to say hello the other day, and he was courteous and happy to show me all of his wonderful NASCAR and racing mementos. While slowed by age and possibly early alzheimers, he was a gentleman and I enjoyed my chat with him. Red Vogt's garage on Spring St, where the name NASCAR was coined, is still standing but is now an urban music shop. The garage door was open though, and I could see inside to where Red worked his miracles on the early Ford engines.

I have never really watched more than 10 minutes of a NASCAR race; despite this. I really enjoyed this book. Based on hundreds of original interviews, the author weaves an engrossing tale of moon-shiners, swindles, and daredevils who turned a weekend hobby into a billion dollar industry.

The author tells a good story and includes just enough technical car talk to keep it authentic, without becoming a book for gear heads. The author does not rush through the book and it is not a quick read. He carefully and slowly builds the story.

I tried watching NASCAR after reading the book, and it made me long for the old days of dirt tracks, fist-fights, and $500.00 racing budgets. I would love to see today's NASCAR stars race on dirt...

This is an outstanding book, by a proven writer who did a splendid job of researching the book. It's hard to believe NASCAR has come so far since the founding days of the late 40's. Today's NASCAR is tame by comparison. Even the names of the drivers were more colorful back then: Runt, PeeWee, Jocco, Hooker, Dick Passwater, Fireball, Slick, Gober, Nero, Possum, Fonty, Buck, Skimp, Hully, Pig Iron, Blackie. Why don't current NASCAR drivers adopt such colorful names? How about Possum Earnhardt or Pig Iron Gordon?
I yearn for the good old days of NASCAR . One time, when I was a kid in the early 50's, I saw a major NASCAR race at Morristown, NJ. Lee Petty arrived in his strictly stock 1954 Chrysler with his wife at his side and his kids, Richard and Maurice, in the back seat with the spare tires and tools. Lee taped the headlights, and went on to win the race. I was at the payoff window when they paid Petty $1,000 in fives and ones for winning the race. I had never seen so much money in my life! Now, the last place finisher in a 500 miler gets $50,000 plus. After the race, the Pettys loaded up the Chrysler, untaped the headlights and drove it back to Randleman, NC, but not before NASCAR tore down the engine to make sure it was strictly stock. I don't think they got on the road until after 3 a.m. Lee's son Richard went on to win a few races later on.

This is a very well-documented history of the roots of NASCAR, illuminating well- and not-so-well-known facts about its moonshining roots, pioneers in its development and the autocratic role of Bill France. While I enjoyed the story, I felt that this was a book in search of a good editor. There's a lot of repetition -- the same facts told in one place are repeated in another, while some paragraphs begin in exactly the same way, on the same page; all of which got in the way of the story, at least in my opinion. Also, some of Thompson's vernacular was incongruous with the overall tone of his narrative. I found myself editing the book while I read it, which, unfortunately, resulted in a few bumps in what should have been a relatively smoother ride. This being said, it's still a comprehensive and well-researched history of America's fastest-growing sport and, for the most part, very readable.

The author really did his research. As Raymond Parks' great-grandson, I learned many things about my family history from reading this book that I didn't know myself! The book gave me a much better understanding of how NASCAR got started and an great peek at the origins of many NASCAR traditions that I had never thought to question before.

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.

Well-written and thoroughly researched, Neal Thompson's Driving with the Devil offers a spectacular view of stock car racing's humble beginnings outside Atlanta and traces the organization of the sport through some of its lesser-known, but more illustrious legends: moonshiner turned entrepreneur Ray Parks, mechanic Red Vogt and early champions like Lloyd Seavy, Roy Hall and Red Byron.

While detailing the history of NASCAR and its transition from hobby for prohibition-era moonshine runners to multi-billion dollar enterprise, Thompson takes care to document the concurrent rise (and fall) of Ford and the evolution of driver/promoter Bill France (whose family still owns NASCAR today). Ancillary stories relating to these men's humble upbringings to experiences in WWII add additional color, dimension and perspective.

Dynamic in every way, this was an excellent read. Thompson creates a world that embraces and explains NASCAR's Southern roots without indulging in stereotypes. I began the book a skeptic and am leaving the book a fan.

I loved the book. I had no idea that NASCAR was born out of the world of moonshiners, so this all struck me as fascinating, well-researched news. A lot of the sources the author interviewed for the book are now dead, which makes this book the last chance to get the truth form the horse's mouth. I'm amazed that he was able to track down so many printed/written sources, which you would have thought had disappeared due to the sports' shady or messy history. The last chapter is especially a hoot. Would recommend!