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

I’m not a NASCAR fan, but found this a very entertaining book. I like reading history and this is a fascinating account of the wild and wide-open early days of stock car racing. It traces the development of the sport from the drivers who drove moonshine from the North Georgia hills into Atlanta, the creation of the sport’s governing body in the 1940s, and the early dirt tracks to the building of the Daytona Speedway. This would be a perfect gift for someone who’s a big NASCAR fan. Especially interesting are the portraits of the sports’ early figures, such as: Lloyd Seay, the first stock car racing star, shot dead at 21 in an argument with a moonshiner. Red Vogt, the wizard mechanic who built many of the early winning cars—it was Vogt who came up with the name National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. Red Byron is my favorite. In WWII Byron was a crewman on a B-24 and sustained serious wounds in his left leg from anti-aircraft shrapnel—he refused to allow doctors to amputate, nearly died, and eventually recovered but never regained complete use of the leg. In order to race, Byron fashioned a home-made clip to hold his foot to the clutch (good luck doing that today!)—he raced well enough to become the first NASCAR Cup Champion in 1949. You have to admire a guy with that kind of grit and determination. And of course, Bill France, who took control of NASCAR to become the czar of stock car racing, and built it into what it is today. Buckle up for a wild ride! By the way, the early drivers didn't use seatbelts, preferring the risk of being thrown clear in a crash to being pinned in the car and burned to death.

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've never been to a live NASCAR race but I really enjoyed this book. I sort of new about the historical link between moonshine running and stock car racing but author Thompson fills in all the details and all the characters in this well researched piece of work.

Its no surprise that while baseball/basketball/and football games are usually playing to semi-packed crowds, NASCAR is continually selling out short tracks and superspeedways that hold 160,000 people. NASCAR is exciting. And contrary to the naysayers, it requires a lot of skill and knowledge of not only racing, but engineering, aerdoynamics, and overall car mechanics. But where and when did NASCAR start? Neal Thompson does a great job in tracing back the early days of southern automobile racing in the 30s and 40s when the sport was led by whiskey runners who drove moonshine from the small towns of dawsonville and dahlonega down to the bigger city of Atlanta. Thompson reveals the lives of some of these drivers (Lloyd Seay, Roy Hall, Red Byron, Fonty Flock), mechanics (Red Vogt) and car owners (Raymond Parks) showing the glorious and not-so glorious moments for each of the early stars in driving. A large part of this book focuses on the man credited with starting the organization of NASCAR: Mr. Bill France. France made his move from an okay driver to an outstanding and often times dirty promoter for the sport of racing. The book chronicles the trials France had to deal with when starting NASCAR (competition with other racing leagues, accidents at the races, financial problems). The book also shows how some tracks got started (Atlanta Lakewood Speedway, Daytona Beach and Road Course, Charlotte Speedway, Columbus Speedway and more) Driving with the Devil is truly fascinating. The beginning of NASCAR was fueled with competition, wild characters, and some truly great stories. I would highly recommend this book to the NASCAR fan looking to read about the history of the sport.

I didn’t know much about this side of NASCAR’s history. Not overly technical, much more about characters and the sport’s development; this audiobook was well-written, a fascinating story and well narrated. And it finishes with an awesome song by a band I’d not previously heard of. I enjoyed this so much I bought the paperback to read again and a couple of songs by Brasher/Bogue!

Got it as a gift for my husband, he said it's an awesome book. Very interesting and well written.

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Absolutely GREAT book and a real tour de force of research - so much so that the author actually went to live in the South for six years in order to write it. Fascinating background to the deepest darkest origins of NASCAR which pulls absolutely no punches. Thompson even makes a case for stock car racing's origins being back in the Civil War!