This collection of behind-the-scenes happenings from the history of the beloved stock car series shares stories of the great and the infamous, revealing privy insights into the drivers that fans thought they knew everything about. The book grants a glimpse into Buck Baker's tomato juice incident, how his son Buddy Baker landed face first in the mud on an ambulance stretcher, Dale Earnhardt's 1997 Daytona 500 rolling crash and how he famously went from ambulance to car to complete the race, Tony Stewart's realization that racing was the ideal career choice, and how Jeff Gordon "misplaced" his commemorative Richard Petty money clip. Race fans with allegiance to any era of NASCAR, past or present, will feel drawn into the inner circle of the drivers after sharing in these inside stories that are worth the telling.

Written for every NASCAR fan, this account goes behind the scenes to peek into the private world of the drivers, promoters, and decision makers—all while eavesdropping on their personal conversations. From high-speed thrills to colorful characters, the book includes stories from Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, and Buz McKim, among others, allowing readers to relive highlights, celebrations, and other memorable moments.

On a cold February day in 1979, when most of the Northeast was snowed in by a blizzard, NASCAR entered the American consciousness with a dramatic telecast of the Daytona 500. It was the first 500-mile race to be broadcast live on national television and featured the heroes and legends of the sport racing on a hallowed track. With one of the wildest finishes in sports history -- a finish that was just the start of the drama -- everything changed for what is now America's second most popular sport. He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back is the story of an emerging sport trying to find its feet. It's the story of how Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison, Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, A.J. Foyt, and Kyle Petty came together in an unforgettable season that featured the first nationally televised NASCAR races. There were rivalries -- even the sibling kind -- and plenty of fistfights, feuds, and frenzied finishes. Rollicking and full of larger-than-life characters, He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back is the remarkable tale of the birth of modern stock-car racing.

"Jeff Hammond has been around racing for a long time-almost as long as me-and he has seen a lot. He's had a lot of success down in the pits where races are won, and he has a lot of stories to tell-some good, some bad-and they are all right here, in this terrific book." -Richard Petty When you stand out there before a race, and you hear the cheering of 150,000 people, and you know that millions of other people are watching on television... well, you just can't imagine the pump. It is just something you can't get enough of. I used to tell people when the day came that I could hear the words, "Gentlemen, start your engines," and not get goose bumps, that was the day I was going to walk away. It hasn't happened yet. I'm broadcasting now, instead of crew chiefing, but I still feel that way. Still get those goose bumps. "Racing is all about chemistry. Hammond and I had it. We were always on the same page. Sometimes I was on the front page though, and he was on the back page!" -Darrell Waltrip

The bestselling inspirational book in which the author reunites with a childhood football hero, now a minister and coach, and witnesses a revelatory demonstration of the true meaning of manhood—Season of Life is a book that “should be required reading for every high school student in America and every parent as well” (Carl Lewis, Olympic champion). Joe Ehrmann, a former NFL football star and volunteer coach for the Gilman high school football team, teaches his players the keys to successful defense: penetrate, pursue, punish, love. Love? A former captain of the Baltimore Colts and now an ordained minister, Ehrmann is serious about the game of football but even more serious about the purpose of life. Season of Life is his inspirational story as told by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jeffrey Marx, who was a ballboy for the Colts when he first met Ehrmann. Ehrmann now devotes his life to teaching young men a whole new meaning of masculinity. He teaches the boys at Gilman the precepts of his Building Men for Others program: Being a man means emphasizing relationships and having a cause bigger than yourself. It means accepting responsibility and leading courageously. It means that empathy, integrity, and living a life of service to others are more important than points on a scoreboard. Decades after he first met Ehrmann, Jeffrey Marx renewed their friendship and watched his childhood hero putting his principles into action. While chronicling a season with the Gilman Greyhounds, Marx witnessed the most extraordinary sports program he’d ever seen, where players say “I love you” to each other and coaches profess their love for their players. Off the field Marx sat with Ehrmann and absorbed life lessons that led him to reexamine his own unresolved relationship with his father. Season of Life is a book about what it means to be a man of substance and impact. It is a moving story that will resonate with athletes, coaches, parents—anyone struggling to make the right choices in life.

Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr. is filled with personal memories of the man known as "the Intimidator" in NASCAR circles. These stories all come from the people who knew him best. Earnhardt was far more complex than those who did not know him well might have expected. His life ended tragically in February 2001 when he was killed during the last lap of the Daytona 500. His untimely death at the age of forty-nine shocked the racing world and the world at large. In Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr., the Intimidator is remembered through hundreds of anecdotes, stories, and insights recounted by fellow drivers, team members, NASCAR officials, and friends and associates. Together they offer a unique and touching reminiscence of one of the greatest and most charismatic race-car drivers ever to climb behind the wheel. NASCAR's Rookie of the Year in 1979, Earnhardt forged a career that included seven NASCAR national championships, seventy-six career wins, and over $34 million in prize money, more than any other driver has ever won. Earnhardt was as tough as they come behind the wheel, also earning the name of "Ironhead" in part because of his reputation for never backing down on the track, where close calls at nearly 200 miles per hour are frequent and often deadly. Angel in Black also shows the generous, considerate side of him as a friend, colleague, and family man. An earlier, shorter version of this book was published in 2001 under the title I Remember Dale Earnhardt. About one-third of the material in Angel in Black comes from the first edition, and the rest is largely new material.