Swerve or die Life at my speed in the first family of NASCAR racing

Kyle Petty

Book - 2022

"No one knows NASCAR-with all its drama, controversy, and excitement-like Kyle Petty does. Swerve or Die is the smart NASCAR book that's never been written before, a real insider's account of exactly how stock-car racing got to be so controversial and how its Southern-bred worldview is shaking American life yet again. Kyle Petty, a third generations racer, current NASCAR commentator, and one of the most beloved figures in the sport, takes readers deep into the heart of the NASCAR he knows. Through deeply personal stories from his racing career, and that of his father and grandfather, he talks about the biggest stars, the most exciting races and, especially the tough, defining issues the sport has had to face. There is no way ...to grasp today's wrenching battles for NASCAR's soul without first knowing about the many dramatic moments throughout NASCAR's history, and Petty recounts them all in a story packed with huge characters and plenty of laughs (and details that even the most ardent NASCAR fans don't know). He also lays out his vision for NASCAR's future, and discusses in clear and simple terms how the sport can bring in new people without driving away old ones."--

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Subjects
Genres
Biography
Autobiographies
Biographies
Published
New York : St. Martin's Press 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
Kyle Petty (author)
Other Authors
Ellis Henican (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
viii, 278 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm
ISBN
9781250277817
9781250285553
9781250875648
  • Dreamer
  • Driver
  • Dad
  • The road ahead.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

The NASCAR legend looks back on his life on the racetrack. "From the highest highs to the lowest lows, no one has lived the NASCAR life quite the way I have." So writes Petty, now 62, old enough to have grown up in a time when muscle cars were made not just of Malibus and Barracudas, but also Monte Carlos and even Buicks. The conventional wisdom, he writes, is that NASCAR grew out of jocular contests between bootleggers after outrunning the revenuers. In fact, the races began as a pastime by soldiers who, having returned from the battlefronts of World War II, didn't have much else in the way of entertainment in the South. Petty's grandfather was one such racer, as was his father, and Petty's son--who was killed on the track in 2000, when he was only 19--extended the racing tradition to make the Pettys the only known four-generation sports dynasty in history. Writing with the assistance of Henican, Petty is a capable storyteller who's comfortable on and off the track, and if some of his racing reminiscences are geared toward the motorhead set, he records plenty of human-interest yarns--not least his affecting writing about his son's death. One interesting anecdote concerns Petty's relatively brief tenure as a country singer, summoned by Hank Williams Jr. to reflect on the long shadows their famous fathers cast. Another recalls his struggle to find an appropriate memorial to his son in the form of a camp for underprivileged kids, one that came into being with the benevolent support of racer and track fan Paul Newman. Just as vivid are the author's accounts of the many mishaps a track driver is bound to suffer in the pursuit of a decidedly dangerous sport. Recalling a crash, he writes, "That didn't look normal. It was a bone sticking out of my left thigh. A big bone. A very big bone." An alternately entertaining and sobering look at the sport and big business of auto racing. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.