"One Helluva Ride" an exploration of NASCAR's popularity

"One Helluva Ride: How NASCAR Swept the Nation"

by Liz Clarke

Villard, 293 pp., $25

Whether you look down your nose at NASCAR racing or find it compelling, you can't ignore the fact that fast shiny cars turning left all the time are now a big-time American sport.

Liz Clarke is a Washington Post sportswriter who looks under the hood of America's premier motor sport with the enthusiasm of a convert, and the careful eye and writing skills of an accomplished journalist.

The conversion of this Barnard College grad occurred 17 years ago, when she started covering the sport for The Charlotte Observer. She showed up to cover her first practice session wearing a dress, only to learn that dresses weren't allowed in the garage area, for safety reasons. Before long, the only dress in her race-weekend suitcase was a black one in case she had to attend a funeral.

Clarke quickly found NASCAR to be "part circus, part county fair." She writes in the introduction that the drivers "proved far more interesting than I imagined — earnest, driven, self-made, and lacking the arrogance and entitlement that afflicted so many professional athletes." Clarke explains why NASCAR grew to eclipse IndyCar racing as the most popular in the land — a big reason has been the toughness and shrewdness of the France family of Daytona Beach that controls the sport.

Another reason for the popularity of NASCAR has been the approachability of the drivers. Richard Petty, who set the standard in fan-driver relations, once followed the request of a New York devotee and drove the late fellow's ashes around a North Carolina raceway, then scattered them at the start-finish line.

Drivers opened up to Clarke. The late Dale Earnhardt, with his mean-guy persona and soft core, was a special favorite. She admits that his death shook her and quotes veteran racing promoter Humpy Wheeler as saying Earnhardt was "the last workingman's driver, somebody that the shrimp-boat captain, the mill worker, the common ordinary man can pull for."

The Northwest is the only part of the nation without a big-time NASCAR track. Clarke's book is a good look at what we are missing.