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 enlarge | Author: Liz Clarke
Publisher: Villard
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $12.47
You Save: $12.53 (50%)
New (23) from $12.47
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 100024
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0345499883
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.72
EAN: 9780345499882
ASIN: 0345499883
Publication Date: February 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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| Customer Reviews:
One Helluva Ride April 20, 2008
I saw the book report of this book by the author, Liz Clarke, on BOOK TV a few weeks ago and throughly enjoyed it. I am a NASCAR fan of lots of years so naturally I wanted the book. I am so glad I got it for it is one of the best reads I have ever experienced. I would recommend it to anyone, NASCAR lover or not. I have shared the book with some fellow NASCAR followers and each of them has had the same opinion, GREAT READ!
NASCAR April 10, 2008
It's a great book. The best thing is buying online thru Amazon. Delivered right to your home, plus save a few bucks also.
Fast-paced and fun February 27, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
With equal parts sports history, business strategy and social commentary, Clarke tracks the rise of NASCAR by focusing on the personalities that made (and continue to make) the sport grow.
If you're looking for a book that recaps significant races or focuses on racing strategy, this isn't it. However, if you want to walk away with the feeling that you've spent an afternoon on Richard Petty's front porch chatting over a few Cheerwines, then you'll thoroughly enjoy this book. Clarke has clearly invested much of herself in NASCAR and the sport has repaid the debt with the gift of its personalities which Clarke presents here as very few could do.
While Clarke clearly loves the sport, she does not sugarcoat some of NASCAR's historic flaws such as the reluctance to quickly address safety issues. In the end, this fast-paced account will leave you with some great insight and knowledge that will serve you as well in Hueytown, Alabama as it will on Madison Avenue.
A winning story, well told February 27, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Take a good look at Liz Clarke's new book, One Helluva Ride: How NASCAR Swept the Nation. You don't have to know auto racing to relate to NASCAR's populist, dirt-track roots, its self-made heroes and multibillion-dollar marketing revolution. If you're already a fan, you'll find fresh insights and up-close portraits of the sport's most compelling personalities. If you're on the fence, climb over: Follow the money, meet the stars, get inside the rivalries and tragedies that pull them together and push them apart.
Clarke knows sports on the world stage. She has covered the NFL, the World Cup, Wimbledon and the Olympics from Sydney to Salt Lake to Athens and the Italian Alps. In 15 years of writing for the Charlotte Observer, the Dallas Morning News, USA Today and, now, the Washington Post, she has also become an authority on NASCAR, a truly American sports phenomenon.
If you can't get past comparing strawberries and cream at Wimbledon's Centre Court to chicken bones at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, you're missing a great story. Clarke's colleague Michael Wilbon, the Post columnist and co-host of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, says it well: "You can't pretend to have a full-scale discussion of sports anymore without understanding NASCAR."
Clarke is an especially observant guide. As a reporter, she didn't choose to write about NASCAR; she knew almost nothing about racing when she was sent to cover her first speedway practice in Charlotte in 1991. As she got to know the drivers, she found them more accessible and interesting than many of the arrogant athletes in pro sports. It was clear that the drivers' personalities, not their 3,400-pound cars, were the sport's real drawing cards.
NASCAR has outgrown cliches about stock car racing and its tens of millions of die-hard fans. Madison Avenue's embrace is hastening change. The small Southern tracks that launched the sport are closing, with new speedways popping up in southern California, Las Vegas, Chicago and Kansas City. International drivers, including Colombia's Juan Pablo Montoya and Scotland's Dario Franchitti, are pulling into NASCAR garages.
In One Helluva Ride, Clarke charts NASCAR's rise with energy and expertise. The book profits tremendously from the trust and respect she earned from such racing icons as Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt. The big picture is clear, but details set the book apart. Readers learn the secret of Petty's elaborate autograph, start a day at Earnhardt's farm with a Sundrop soda and a sausage biscuit, watch his fatal crash from the press box at Daytona in 2001.
[...]
NASCAR Nationa, Indeed February 26, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Liz Clark's outstanding perspective of events and characters that helped shaped NASCAR is one of the best I have seen. Her mix of researched history, as well as personal anecdotes, is a must-read for hard-line NASCAR fans, as well as those folks who think NASCAR racing is just a bunch of cars going around in circles. Clark cuts to the core of NASCAR's popularity...which is people....working-class people who share a sense of excitement and comraderie in pulling for their favorite driver and team. She also shares poignant memories of what it was like to interview NASCAR superstars Dale Earnhardt, Sr., Richard Petty, Bobby Allison and many others. NASCAR's history is much more than names, dates and places.
Clark gives you glimpses of the sport you won't find anywhere else.
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