East Tennessee isn't typically mentioned among stock car racing's formative hotbeds. But the region from Bristol to Oneida and Chattanooga encapsulates a significant portion of the sport's history. From pioneers like Brownie King and Paul Lewis of Johnson City to former national champions Joe Lee Johnson of Chattanooga and L.D. Ottinger of Newport, East Tennessee has produced many of NASCAR's great drivers. The region is home to one of the world's largest sports stadiums in the Bristol Motor Speedway, but NASCAR also made regular visits to other area tracks. Whether the surface is red clay, asphalt or brushed concrete, East Tennessee still boasts some of the world's fastest, most competitive racing. Join author and racing insider David McGee as he presents a vast array of colorful characters whose passion fueled a sport that has gone from primitive to prime time.

"Phillip sees things in a different light and has a way of conveying his thoughts to a legion of fans that read his column, including the subjects he sometimes had to criticize. That takes a unique writer." Rob Geiger, Managing Partner, Geiger Media Global, Inc. What's it like to be a maniac on a mission? From the worlds of performance engineering, product development, drag racing, auto racing and human creativity, go beyond with THE ECLECTIC 18. Learn tipping points key to the success of The Justice Brothers oil empire uncovered only here. Realize lessons from Funny Car NHRA pioneer John Force's rise to racing supremacy and how his success

Kingsport Speedway has hosted many of racing's greatest drivers, whether its track surface was asphalt, red clay, or brushed concrete. The short track, located in East Tennessee, has undergone dramatic changes since 1965 in attempts to keep pace with an ever-evolving motorsports landscape while entertaining three generations of fans. Hall of Fame members have raced and won at Kingsport Speedway, as did a contingent of regional stars. Today, Kingsport Speedway features weekly programs of NASCAR's Whelen All-American Series, which crowns track, state, regional, and national champions.

The first organized, sanctioned American stock car race took place in 1908 on a road course around Briarcliff, New York--staged by one of America's early speed mavens, William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. A veteran of the early Ormond-Daytona Beach speed trials, Vanderbilt brought the Grand Prize races to Savannah, Georgia, the same year. What began as a rich man's sport eventually became the working man's sport, finding a home in the South with the infusion of moonshiners and their souped-up cars. Based in large part on statements of drivers, car owners and others garnered from archived newspaper articles, this history details the development of stock car racing into a megasport, chronicling each season through 1974. It examines the National Association for Stock Car Automobile Racing's 1948 incorporation documents and how they differ from the agreements adopted at NASCAR's organization meeting two months earlier. The meeting's participants soon realized that their sport was actually owned by William H.G. "Bill" France, and its consequential growth turned his family into billionaires. The book traces the transition from dirt to asphalt to superspeedways, the painfully slow advance of safety measures and the shadowy economics of the sport.

This work brings together 16 of the best presentations on sport from the conferences of the Popular Culture Association. Topics include baseball (the 1941 World Series, the career of Stan Musial, Italian Americans in the game, and Japanese players), golf (Tiger Woods, and the culture wars over women at Augusta National), football (integration at UCLA, the controversy over the Indian mascot at Florida State, and the creation of the New Orleans Saints), auto racing (the revival of dirt tracks, racing's roots in Virginia, NASCAR in Eastern Iowa, and the NASCAR fan), and sports and men (marketing in hockey, social class and fishing, and Muhammad Ali's last stand). Together the essays demonstrate that sports are deeply woven into the fabric of American culture--a tapestry of society with all its heroism and triumph, failures and flaws. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.