He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back

Starred review from January 4, 2010
Stock car racing had long been a Southern phenomenon, but 1979 changed everything. A fight at the live, nationally televised Daytona 500 between Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough helped, especially since monstrous snowstorms over the race's weekend essentially made the East housebound, contributing to big ratings. There was more to NASCAR's rise to legitimacy, according to Bechtel, a senior editor at Sports Illustrated
. From cowboy boots to Smokey and the Bandit
, America was becoming consumed with the South's culture, and NASCAR fell right in line. A fledgling television network called ESPN needed sports programming to fill its schedule, and NASCAR was happy to oblige. Hotshot rookie Dale Earnhardt's fearless driving and working-class appeal landed a legend and the foundation of its future popularity. Throughout, Bechtel uses the 1979 NASCAR season as his backdrop, profiling the motley crew of racers and executives who were at the forefront. What could have been a painful juggling act becomes an illuminating, informative, and entertaining read, as the engaging and droll Bechtel is in complete control from start to finish. 8-page color insert.

February 15, 2010
A time-honored belief in NASCAR auto racing lore is that the sport catapulted from its Southern regional base to national prominence as a result of the televised 1979 Daytona 500 event, which ended dramatically when the two leaders crashed each other in the final lap, then got into a fight that was joined by a third driver. This episode swelled both media attention and subsequent ticket sales and could not have been more fortuitous in promoting the NASCAR brand. Bechtel (senior editor, "Sports Illustrated") uses this Daytona race as a pivot, both to look back from and from which to survey the entire 1979 racing season. Bechtel's assessments are spot on. Though that Daytona race was a catalyst, that season featured many of NASCAR's legendary drivers, future stars, and most colorful personalities and culminated with one of the closest championship contests ever. Everything that season seemed to align to capture significant fan interest and usher NASCAR firmly onto the national radar screen. Bechtel's easy, flowing style in his well-developed account is peppered with vignettes that readers will savor, like the time that Richard Petty raced while wearing cowboy boots. VERDICT This should have wide appeal to racing fans and can serve libraries as a historical perspective on a seminal season in NASCAR's development. Solidly recommended.David Van de Streek, Penn State Univ. Libs., York

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2010
In March 1979, the northern half of the U.S. was blanketed by a heavy snowstorm. In those pre-cable days, there wasnt much on television, and the nations viewers were almost forced to watch the Daytona 500 in between driveway shovelings. Bechtel, a Sports Illustrated editor who covered NASCAR for the magazine for nine years, points to that snowy March day as the beginning of the sports appeal to a broader audience. Prior, it had mostly been a southern regional sport. But this isnt a dry examination of expanding audience metrics; rather, its a funny, entertaining look at the outsize personalities and rivalries that fueled NASCARs growth. There are profiles of such legendary characters as Richard King Petty, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, and Dale Earnhardt, among others. They were either former moonshiners who drove souped-up cars to outrun government agents or direct descendants of those backwoods adventurers. They were clannish, fearless, and refreshingly frank with the media, traits all reflected in Bechtels entertaining memoir of that memorable 1979 season.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)