Then Tony Said to Junior...: The Best Nascar Stories Ever Told (Best Sports Stories Ever Told) [Hardcover]

Mike Hembree (Author), Carl Edwards (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"He never gave up. Never. It didn't matter whether his car was way off or if he was laps down. He never stopped driving the wheels off of that thing."

--Jeff Gordon on Dale Earnhardt Sr. "We're not playing checkers. This is life or death stuff."

--Brian Vickers "David knocked me into the wall and messed my car up pretty bad. I was in the pits three or four laps getting it fixed. I caught back up to him on the racetrack. I hit him a lot harder than he hit me. When I came around the next lap, he was out of the car and had the steering wheel in his hand. He threw it at me. We never had any more trouble after that."

--Ned Jarrett on David Pearson "It was tough all the way around then. I used to tell the guys in the pits we'd race for 30 minutes and fight for an hour. Driving the cars back then was like having two mad bulls with one set of harnesses on them."

--Buck Baker

From the Inside Flap

When stock-car racing was relegated to dirt tracks and backyard festivities, no one anticipated that it would become the monolithic entity that NASCAR is today. It started as a way for people who loved racing to simply feel the thrill of driving fast and the exhilaration of competing with like-minded racers in a raw burn to the finish line. But now some of that has changed. The tracks are huge and cost millions to build; the cars are fancier and require a large crew to maintain; and NASCAR has become a huge industry, attracting millions of fans to the track every year. But one thing hasn't changed: the spirit of the thing. The sport is a high-energy blast that can only come with the combination of human and machine hurtling down the track in a full-bore grab for the checkered flag.

There is a history here, an entity that has evolved and is still evolving. And that entity has seen many remarkable events and created many legends. In "Then Tony Said to Junior...", Mike Hembree compiles an exhaustive array of stories and digs to their roots, giving the reader an insider's point of view and passing on previously unheard tales from the track and beyond.

From Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough's infamous trackside fistfight during the 1979 Daytona 500 to the brash ways of relative newcomers Kyle and Kurt Busch, all eras of the sport are represented. There are numerous stories about legendary drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Sr., Darrell Waltrip, and Richard Petty, but there are just as many about those from the new era, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, and the backflipping Carl Edwards. Learn which drivers purchased a German-made amphibious vehicle for $10,500 while on a road trip; read about the fights, both on and off the track; have a chuckle at all the behind-the-scenes hijinks and pranks; and learn what the 1978 White House NASCAR dinner was really like.

For every fan of NASCAR--even for those who prefer the old days when the sport was simpler--"Then Tony Said to Junior..." does an exceptional job of identifying the best stories that have emerged from this fascinating sport.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books; Har/Com edition (February 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600780903
• ISBN-13: 978-1600780905
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #450,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Then Tony Said to Junior, December 25, 2009

By 

S. J. Melvin (Virginia USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Then Tony Said to Junior...: The Best Nascar Stories Ever Told (Best Sports Stories Ever Told) (Hardcover)

If you are a NASCAR fan, this is the book to read. I really enjoyed it as it talks about some of the older days.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inside Nascar with Drivers and others, March 2, 2011

By 

TexasHarley - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: "Then Tony Said to Junior..." (Best Sports Stories Ever Told) (Kindle Edition)

If you are a Nascar fan, you will love this book. Short stories from drivers, owners, crew chiefs, reporters and more. Easy and fast to read.