Customer Reviews

Sunday Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death! A Hot Lap Around America with Nascar

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I wouldn't consider myself a died-in-the-wool huge NASCAR fan, but this book was terrific. MacGregor's style is full of wit and yet he peels back much of the unknown about NASCAR and it's followers. He more than satisfies our curiosity and, as a result, leaves us not only smarter about NASCAR, but wiser about the kaleidoscope of our society.

Perhaps a little mad himself (he and his wife cash their savings in for a dee-lux motorhome), a better author I couldn't imagine for taking me on this raucous roll around the racetracks, and through the heart of America. SUNDAY MONEY is a sexy, witty, colorful portrait of the world that is NASCAR.

Until reading Sunday Money, I had little interest in books about motorsport racing in general, and about NASCAR in particular. However, since childhood, I have had a keen interest in books which focus on adventures during a journey of some kind. Homer's Odyssey, for example, and Cervantes' Don Quixote. More recently, William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways and River Horse. To me, such books are like "magic carpets" which transport me to unfamiliar cultures and often to distant centuries. That said, Sunday Money is one of the most entertaining as well as most informative books I have read in recent years. MacGregor and his wife (an award-winning photographer) committed ten months and a small fortune to traveling almost 50,000 miles throughout the United States inorder to observe a complete NASCAR racing season first-hand. As I began to read this book, these were the questions of greatest interest to me:

1. What were the origins of NASCAR?

2. What have been the most significant developments since then?

3. Most people observe NASCAR races on television or at a distance from the on-track competition. What did the MacGregors (especially Jeff) learn about NASCAR racing which can only be experienced "up close and personal"?

4. Why has NASCAR racing become so popular?

5. What are the most common misconceptions about it and those who are so devoted to it?

6. In MacGregor's opinion, what does NASCAR reveal about our society?

7. What were the MacGregors' fondest memories of their 35-state journey?

8. How do male and female perspectives on NASCAR racing differ?

9. Why does NASCAR racing remain "overwhelmingly, blindingly white"?

10. For those who have not as yet driven a competition car, what's it like?

MacGregor answers each of these and other questions for those who know little and care less about motorsport racing. My guess (only a guess) is that several are the same questions which MacGregor had when he and his wife began their journey of exploration and discovery within the NASCAR World. It was a pleasure to tag along with them.

It is hard to describe the pleasure reading this book causes. Part of it is the sheer audacity of abandoning your comfortable life in NYC to the strict confines of motorhome living. And then reading as Jeff and his wife try to understand what they have gotten themselves into. And yet through all the noise and the smoke, Jeff seems to have crystallized the NASCAR experience for the fan and non-fan alike. His descriptions leap off the page and require you to pay attention. A must read for any fan of great writing

Boogity boogity boogity, let's go reading!
So a guy who isn't really a hardore NASCAR fan at all ups and buys a motorhome and he and his wife (who sounds like the coolest chick on the planet) follow the NASCAR circuit like hippies following the greatful dead.

the book is a travel narrative based around stockcar racing, with the history of the sport and organization, anecdotes, interviews, and a regular guy's view of the culture. the less you know about NASCAR, the better, you will learn all about it. as long as you don't absolutely despise the sport, you will probably enjoy the hell out of this book.

the author is quite unbiased. he doesn't just praise NASCAR, he tells the good and the bad, and gives some insight into the whole shebang that touches on things i never even thought about, like how, weather you like it or not, if you buy anything at your supermarket, you are linked to NASCAR.

the book is well written, funny, poetic at times, and i honestly felt like i was living in his motorhome with him and travelling right there with him. the only people i might not reccommend this book to are the hardcore fans, who already know just about everything this guy talks about, but then again, they might enjoy this guy's opinion and experiences, so yeah, i would reccommend it to everyone i talk to. yeehaw!

The roar of the engines. The roar of the crowds. You'll roar with laughter when you read Jeff MacGregor's "Sunday Money". This funny and informative book is a terrific read. You can almost taste the burning rubber and the BBQ as you race through this page turner. Mr. MacGregor and his photographer wife Olya, traveled around America for almost a year in a motorohome to create this book. The end result is a tale of the origins of NASCAR, and where the sport stands today. On any given Sunday you might find upwards of 400,000 screaming fans watching these daring young men take their lives in their hands. Six hundred horsepower cars, sometimes running three abreast at nearly two hundred miles an hour, inches away from each other. We've come a long way from the chariot races of Ben Hur. I don't think these drivers get the credit they deserve. What I liked most about this book is it gave me an insight not only into racing, but the culture that surrounds it. I wouldn't classify myself a racing fan by any means, but "Sunday Money" gave me a true appreciation of the sport, as it vividly brings to life the happenings on and off the track. Hot cars. Hot guys. Smoking hot girls! That's right. Babes aplenty. What more could you ask for? "Sunday Money" is right on the money!

NASCAR is huge. And, as Jeff MacGregor points out in this book, even the non-fans are impacted.

"Your batteries and your beer, your cookies and your corn flakes are probably running the low groove in this week's race. Your last oil change or pack of smokes or dip of chew paid for some racer's shocks or valve springs or cylinder head."

The thing that I liked the most about this book is watching MacGregor drawn into the NASCAR culture almost unwillingly, and he's taking us along for the ride.

From the moment the motor home is purchased, MacGregor takes us on a road trip into NASCAR culture AND history. On the way to Daytona, we learn about Bill France, Sr. We learn of Carl Kiekhaefer (the first 'businessman owner' in NASCAR) on the way to Rockingham. We learn things about NASCAR that we never thought about, because we never thought of NASCAR as something with a history. And that history is fascinating.

We also get glimpses of NASCAR culture. We meet "Ernie Irvin's brother." We hear the chants from the turn three infield at Daytona. And we can feel the raw emotion as people stand before the statue of their fallen hero, Dale Ernhardt.


We also get a glimpse into what makes these men want to do this. MacGregor takes part in the Richard Petty Driving Experience, and records the emotion and the adrenalin rush as he heads around the track at 130 MPH. Picky readers will balk at the sentence structure in this section, but the run-on sentences and fast pacing illustrate what is happening perfectly. I personally love when authors can change their pacing to match what's going on in the narrative, and MacGregor does this perfectly.

MacGregor followed NASCAR across the country in a motor home. After reading about his experiences, I find myself wanting to do the same. We don't have to do it, though -- all we have to do is read the book, and we are there. The book may not make any new NASCAR fans, but it will help non-fans understand the fans a lot better -- and may help to diminish some of the stereotypes that people have of NASCAR fans. I know at the race I attended in Atlanta several years ago, for every redneck drunk on Jack Daniels at the track there was a businessman in expensive jeans and polo shirt. The one thing all fans have in common is "The need for speed."

Finally -- a piece of writing about NASCAR that's not either (1) making the drivers out to be gods among men or (2) making NASCAR out to be a redneck sport. This book doesn't pull any punches, and it's honesty was refreshing. A very human book that not only gave me a lot to think about, but also made me laugh and laugh.

As a longtime Nascar fan and lifetime reader, I'm tired of being stereotyped as someone who won't or doesn't or can't read. Down below here somewhere is a review that says, in capital letters, that this book is not for Nascar fans. Just because the reviewer, who makes a point of saying they went to college, didn't seem to understand the language in the book.

In the first place, I think he or she is very wrong, because this is an excellent book, perhaps the best racing book I've read. You won't learn much you don't already know about tuning secrets or race set-ups, but it's certainly the most honest look behind the scenes. And the funniest. If you've ever been to the track you've met every one of the people in this book.

Secondly, by saying that it's not for Nascar fans because they might not get the unfamiliar words, and may need to haul out their dictionary or something, he/she winds up using the same cliche that Nascar fans resent so much in non-fans: that we're semi-literate hicks.

Some Nascar fans seem to want to have it both ways: they want their sport to be treated like a big time mainstream sport by the big time mainstream media, but cry boohoo when someone actually shows up to write a good book about it.

If you're tired of books about Nascar racers from fifty years ago, or Nascar books that tell the same ten stories over and over again and seem like they were written by people in a hurry to cash a paycheck, then this book is a great buy. I ordered it and read it in a weekend. Glad I did.

It's hard to describe this book, which is a VERY good thing. It's about racing, but it's also about the gaping divide between Red/Blue America, and about all the weird and wonderful and scary corners of America most of us never see. If you like NASCAR you'll like this book; if you hate NASCAR, you'll love this book. If you like great writing, you'll love this book; if you like to laugh, you'll love this book. Imagine What's Wrong with Kansas written by Jon Stewart, with speed, death and burning rubber tossed into the salad.