In the 20th Anniversary Edition introduction, Bledsoe notes that the first edition barely sold enough to cover the publishing and marketing costs. "Well, it was well received by critics," Bledsoe states, "several of whom said it lived up to its title. A couple called it a classic work on the subject, and to be a classic, it has to stay around, right?" Bledsoe put out the anniversary edition in 1995, published by Down Home Press.
The Central New Jersey Home News (New Brunswick, NJ), Feb 18, 1975: "Jerry Bledsoe has tried to capture some of the fascination of NASCAR racing in his book... There is a lot of Wolfe's 'new journalism' style in this book, but not enough to erase Bledsoe's obvious talents for seeing inside the people he is writing about and transferring their words to print."
The High Point Enterprise (High Point, NC), Feb 23, 1975: "Bledsoe has written about stock car racing from its beginning to where it is today. He tells this story not in a single, chronological narrative, but through glimpses of people involved in stock car racing."
St. Louis Post Dispatch (St. Louis, MO), March 16, 1975: "Bledsoe sees a unique slice of American culture amid the STP decals and oversize Goodyear racing tires."
Tallahassee Democrat (Tallahassee, FL), June 23, 1967: "The reader is treated to views of down-home, rough-and-ready, half-mile, dirt-track racing, as well as the expensive and sophisticated Grand National division."
Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing found mainly and most prominently in the United States and Canada, with New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, Great Britain and Brazil also having forms of stock car auto racing. Traditionally, races are run on oval tracks measuring approximately 0.25 to 2.66 miles. The world's largest governing body for stock car racing is the American NASCAR, and its NASCAR Cup Series is the premier top-level series of professional stock car racing. Top-level races typically range between 200 to 600 miles in length. The cars were originally production models ("stock") but are now highly modified.
Julius Timothy Flock was an American stock car racer. He was a two-time NASCAR series champion. He was a brother to NASCAR's second female driver Ethel Mobley and Bob and Fonty Flock.
Days of Thunder is a 1990 American sports action drama film released by Paramount Pictures, produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Tony Scott. The cast includes Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Cary Elwes, Caroline Williams, and Michael Rooker. The film also features appearances by real life NASCAR racers, such as Rusty Wallace, Neil Bonnett, and Harry Gant. Commentator Dr. Jerry Punch, of ESPN, has a cameo appearance, as does co-producer Don Simpson.
Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located in Darlington, South Carolina. It is nicknamed "The Lady in Black" and "The Track Too Tough to Tame" by many NASCAR fans and drivers and advertised as "A NASCAR Tradition." It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that will be effective at both ends.
Wendell Oliver Scott was an American stock car racing driver. He was one of the first African-American drivers in NASCAR, and the first African-American to win a race in the Grand National Series, NASCAR's highest level.
Greased Lightning is a 1977 American biographical film starring Richard Pryor, Beau Bridges, and Pam Grier, and directed by Michael Schultz. The film is loosely based on the true life story of Wendell Scott, the first African American NASCAR race winner and 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee.
NASCAR '98 is a racing simulator video game developed by Stormfront Studios, published by EA Sports, and released in 1997 for the Sega Saturn and the Sony PlayStation. This was the first game in the EA Sports NASCAR series.
BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars is a class of single seater stock car racing from the UK. Cars are custom-built and race on oval tracks of either shale or tarmac of approximately a quarter-mile in length. The tracks are surrounded by either an Armco barrier or post and cable fences to keep the cars on the track. Racing is full contact, which means drivers are allowed to push, punt and spin fellow competitors out of the way, although these maneuvers are often subtle as opposed to simply crashing into each other. The cars are very strong and are of an open wheel design, but are made with the contact element in mind, with front and rear bumpers and sturdy roll cages. The cars are unlimited horsepower with drivers using any engine they choose, with Chevrolet based small or big block V8 engines being the most popular. BriSCA F1 is the pinnacle of oval racing in the UK. The season runs from March through to November, with occasional meetings at Christmas.
Jerry Bledsoe is an American author and journalist known for several true crime titles based on murders in his native state of North Carolina.
Charles Tidwell was an American race car driver, best known for his career driving stock cars in the NASCAR, GASCAR, and MARC circuits. His racing career lasted from 1948 to 1959. Tidwell set track records at Albany, Georgia and Macon, Georgia during his career.
V8 Hotstox is a British stock car racing formula that races on British short oval racing circuits. Drivers are members of the British Stock Car Drivers Association (BSCDA) and are affiliated to the British Stock Car Racing Association (BriSCA). V8 Hotstox have also previously been known as V8 Stock Cars.
The 1955 Southern 500, the sixth running of the event, was a NASCAR Grand National Series event. The event was held on September 5, 1955, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. This race spanned 500 miles on a paved oval track. An unofficial 30-minute highlight film of this race would appear on the collector's set of Stock Cars of 50s & 60s – Stock Car Memories: Darlington-Southern 500; which was released in 2008.
The 1956 Southern 500, the seventh running of the event, was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on September 3, 1956, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina.
The inaugural Southern Five-Hundred was part of the 1950 NASCAR Grand National series that took place September 4, 1950, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. It was responsible for turning the Southern 500 into the biggest racing event prior to the 1959 Daytona 500. While this edition of the Southern 500 would be hosted in association with the Central States Racing Association, all of the other Southern 500 races would be hosted exclusively by NASCAR.
The 1951 Southern 500, the second running of the event, was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on September 3, 1951, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. The winner of the race was Herb Thomas.
The 1952 Southern 500, the third running of the event, was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on September 1, 1952, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina.
The 1977 Southern 500, the 28th running of the event, was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race that took place on September 5, 1977, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina.
The 1953 Southern 500, the fourth running of the event, was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on September 7, 1953, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina.
The 2016 Bojangles' Southern 500, the 67th running of the event, was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race that was held on September 4, 2016 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. Contested over 367 laps on the 1.366-mile (2.198 km) egg-shaped oval, it was the 25th race of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Furniture Row Racing's Martin Truex Jr. won the race by holding off Kevin Harvick to earn his second victory of the 2016 season.
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, when the series began leasing its naming rights to the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, it was referred to as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series (1971–2003). A similar deal was made with Nextel in 2003, and it became the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series (2004–2007). Sprint acquired Nextel in 2005, and in 2008 the series was renamed the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (2008–2016). In December 2016, it was announced that Monster Energy would become the new title sponsor and the series was renamed the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (2017–2019). In 2019, NASCAR rejected Monster's offer to extend the current naming rights deal beyond the end of the season. NASCAR subsequently announced its move to a new tiered sponsorship model beginning with the 2020 season similar to other US based professional sports leagues, where it was simply known as the NASCAR Cup Series, with the sponsors of the series being called Premier Partners. The four Premier Partners are Busch Beer, Coca-Cola, GEICO, and Xfinity.
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