Tales from the Track

Book excerpt: Stock car racing as we know it began in the late 1940's. Throughout the 1950's, the sport became popular across the United States. In the southern states, the 1950's saw a tremendous proliferation of small dirt tracks whose owners were hoping to ride the crest of stock car racing's building popularity. Along with the increasing number of tracks, a new breed of race driver emerged. These were primarily blue-collar men who had families to support and full-time jobs to fulfull, but whose lives often became consumed with building cars, racing and long hours of mechanical work in a never-ending search for more speed. With each passing year, more was learned about racing and the sport gradually became more sophisticated. The stories told in this book are direct from the memories of the drivers, owners, and family members of drivers who describe what it was like to be a part of the racing subculture of the era in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Hear it in their own words.