Books : Sunday Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death! A Hot Lap Around America with NASCAR

In association with Amazon.com
 View Shopping Cart or Checkout 

Author name: Jeff Macgregor

: Sunday Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death! A Hot Lap Around America with NASCAR
View Bigger Picture

Used Price: $0.01
Collectible Price: $25.95
Third Party New Price: $1.85






Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.72
EAN num: 9780060094713
ISBN number: 0060094710
Label: HarperCollins
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: May 01, 2005
Publishing house: HarperCollins
Release Date: April 26, 2005
Sale Popularity Level: 248932
Studio: HarperCollins



Other books you might be interested in perusing:

Editor's Notes and Comments:

Product Description:
NASCAR racing, once considered no more than a regional circuit of moonshiners pounding around low-country dirt tracks in a cloud of blue dust and cliché, has somehow become the fastest-growing spectator sport in America -- and the buxom, bumpkin darling of Madison Avenue. With 75 million fans and its popularity soaring in every corner of the country, NASCAR is a 200-mile-an-hour traveling tent-and-revival show, a platinum-plated, multibillion-dollar V-8 hero machine -- a sports entertainment empire built at the very crossroads of pop culture, corporate commerce, and American mythology.

Smart, funny, and profane, Sunday Money is the kaleidoscopic account of an entire season on the NASCAR circuit. Driving 48,000 miles in a tiny motorhome, writer Jeff MacGregour and his wife, an award-winning photographer, covered 36 races at 23 tracks in 18 states, from Daytona to Darlington, New Hampshire to California, from the Wal-Mart to the Waldorf, profiling the lives of superstar drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart, their crews, and their fans, across the grinding reach of a 40-week season.

But this is not just a behind-the-scenes chronicle of America's loudest pastime. It is the story of a hundred stories; of blue states and blue, of splendid Rebel lizards and golden Yankee hotshoes, of mystic true believers and their holy roll of honored ghosts. In the tradition of On the Road, Travels with Charley, and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Sunday Money is a snapshot of American culture -- of race, religion, class, sex, money, politics, and fame -- taken from the window of a moving car, a brilliantly observed, keenly rendered, and darkly comic portrait of America.

Amazon.com Review:
Author Jeff MacGregour was committed to understanding NASCAR, so instead of merely dropping in on a race or two, he traveled the nearly yearlong season in an RV with his wife, photographer Olya Evanitsky. The result is many books in one. It's a vivid history of the sport's roots, as it grows from a rowdy way for Florida good ol' boys to blow off steam to being a titan of American culture with a fan base of 75 million. It also covers a broad swath of personalities within NASCAR--from the widely loved and even more widely loathed driver Jeff Gordon to the iconic Richard Petty to Dale Earnhardt, whose mythic power grew exponentially after his death at Daytona (death is never far from anyone’s mind in NASCAR). Finally, Sunday Money is a memoir--MacGregour chronicles exactly what life is like when a married couple blows their savings on a massive RV and logs 48,000 miles within the blasting radius of race after race after race.

MacGregour is funny, and it's interesting to watch how a man skeptical of the sport's allure at the beginning of the adventure is sucked in as the story goes along. As a writer, he's in no hurry, knocking off several paragraphs in the interest of a single whimsical analogy if he sees fit. Much of the time the diversions hit the mark, (sometimes they don't) and it's nice to see an editor let a talented writer like MacGregour run loose. NASCAR loyalists may enjoy the behind-the-scenes scoop even if they don't necessarily need to be introduced to who the drivers are. But non-fans who have been wondering why racing has become so huge so fast, may understand a little better after reading Sunday Money. It's a huge book, a massive sprawling narrative, but for a sport that is active nearly every weekend of the year and is growing ever larger and more successful, the length seems perfect. --John Moe

Photos from the Sunday Money 2002 NASCAR Tour

NASCAR star Jeff Gordon autographs for fans
Tony Stewart wins the NASCAR Winston Cup
Fans pack the stands for the Pepsi 400

NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Ward Burton's car pits mid-race during the NAPA 500
Cars race around the track in Charlotte
Jeff MacGregor's Top Ten Tips for Your First NASCAR Race
    10. Day race? Bring ear plugs, hat, binoculars.

    9. Night race? Bring ear plugs, hat, beer goggles.

    8. At Daytona and Talladega, there’s no such thing as too much sunblock. SPF 45. Apply liberally. Repeat, as needed, until you slip from your seat like a watermelon seed.

    7. Yes, NASCAR is expanding everywhere and very fast, but effortful puns on the word Madagascar will only lead to embarrassment.

    6. Your copy of Sunday Money is an excellent conversation starter for making new friends at the track. Thanks to its quilted cover, it also doubles as a comfy seat-cushion and a stylish windshield sun-screen.

    5. Drivers cannot hear you yelling encouragement from the 58th row when they’re actually lapping the track. This will not stop the high school kid behind you from doing so.

    4. Like room service Eggs Benedict, the Jumbo Grilled Turkey Legs at any racetrack always sound far better than they are. Avoid them. Let them thrive in the happy hunger of your imagination, rather than deliver their sad reality to your somersaulting innards. Life bears enough disappointments.

    3. Women, despite the signs you’ll see in the third turn campground, there’s no such thing as a 'Free Trackside Mammogram.' Don’t let the Mardi Gras beads fool you; there are shockingly few accredited radiologists working the infield on race weekend.

    2. All-purpose, all-context catch phrase guaranteed to make a NASCAR newbie sound like an old hand? 'Go, Junior!' Appropriate any time!

    1. If your tailgate margarita machine doesn’t make at least ten horsepower on the blender-drink dyno, don’t bother. Go big, baby, or don’t go.




Customer Reviews
User popularity level: out of 5 stars

Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - Entertaining!
I really enjoyed this book. I'm not a NASCAR fan, but I am a sports fan. I enjoyed learning a little about a niche in sports I'm not that familiar with. I thought the author was very funny and insightful regarding the lifestyle of NASCAR fans, it was an easy read as well. I thought he really explored the idea of what it means to be a "fan" and was entertaining at the same time.


Rated by buyers 2 out of 5 stars - The agony of watching your neighbors vacation slides.
This is in reference to the 2005 hard cover addition. There are a number of good anecdotes regarding NASCAR, some drivers, the fans and races; however, the majority of it was like being invite to your neighbor's to watch a slide show of their vacation, and every slide had an agonizing story that only they could appreciate. I was also turned off by the fact that the author felt the need to include profanity. The profanity was limited and usually in the context of a quote, but nothing would have been lost if he had used "bleep" or even f..., m..... f....., etc.


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - Great Race stories you can share
This is one of the funniest stories I have ever read about NASCAR fans. If you enjoy racing as I have the last 40 years..this book will be one of your top books to read and share with your racing buddies.The subsequent best thing would have been with those folks on their great American NASCAR adventure.I must say though, when you are reading through the chapter's you will feel like been there done that..and by golly, I brought home one of those tee shirts, plus make sure I it was washed for the subsequent Sunday's race.Gentlemen...START YOUR ENGINE'S


Rated by buyers 1 out of 5 stars - Uninsightful and tedious
I like (and participate in) road racing, and think that NASCAR is the pro wrestling of the motor sports world.

I'm vastly disappointed in this book. Reading it is something like watching a movie based on your favorite Saturday Night Live skit. What's funny and workable in a four- or six-minute skit just doesn't scale well to a ninety-minute movie. MacGregor's writing style is choppy, abbreviated, and awkward. While his talent might be in writing pieces of a few thousand words for a magazine, he just can't put it together for a full-length book.

MacGregour tours the country in a motorhome with his wife to see a whole season of NASCAR races. He calls his wife "The Beep", but never explains why. While retracts the opinion late in the book, early on he says that driving fast is easy -- something that certainly kills his credibility and demonstrates his lack of insight into the subject of his tour. His dismissive treatment of the sport, its participants, and its fans permeates the book, and is very tedious and disappointing.

Failing to understand the talent and stamina required to drive a race car at a professional, competitive level is not the only point where MacGregor's insight is lacking. The book includes no interviews between MacGregour and any fan, NASCAR official, or driver. The point of traveling is to see new places and meet new people. Particularly for a travelogue, as it brings the flavor of the events Jeff witnessed to the reader using a different point of view. The reader sees only Jeff's reactions to the events at that track, and learns nothing of his understanding of the fan base, or the experience that is a NASCAR race weekend.

Because of the lack of any investigation, the controversies and traditions that are NASCAR are lost on Jeff. And, by extension, his readers.

The last two or three chapters of the book have little to with racing at all. They're just a cathartic rambling of Jeff's on opinions on subjects related to The United States and what he believes most NASCAR fans hold as core values.

The book is a tedious read, and doesn't better the reader for the effort.



Rated by buyers 1 out of 5 stars - Reads like a boring blog
After attending my very first NASCAR race (Talladega), I wanted to learn more about the entire NASCAR experience -- the race and RV'ing extravaganza. However, this book drags on forever.

If you've never been to a NASCAR race, go. If you've been to one, you certainly do not need to read this book.

see more

Find other books like this one:

 


Treat Guttate Psoriasis / Remedying Stress / The Two Brothers / Bettys Bright Idea / Stories /
Young Sherlock Holmes Autism Shirt Oz Presents The Adventure Of The Beryl Coronet Alice In Wonderland Doll Oleg Cassini Wedding Dress Jungle Book Next Corporate Gift Uk St Valentine Day Massacre Picture

Home - Trains - Planes - Ships - Transportation