Richard Petty: Images of the King By Ben Blake and Dick Conway (Image: SPEED) » More Photos

7. Richard Petty: Images of the King By Ben Blake and Dick Conway - With a title like “Richard Petty: Images of the King,” one would expect an album of excellent photographs of the greatest stock car driver in history. Dick Conway delivers! Most of the 250 images in the book are his…and they are excellent. But it is Ben Blake’s text that puts this book on another level. He not only documents WHEN Petty was crowned “The King,”…during the 1967 season when “King Richard” won an amazing 27 races, including 10 in a row, but WHY he was “The King.”

Blake writes, “He is a man who sat and talked with presidents and kings, yet anyone on earth can walk up to him and strike up a conversation…and Petty won’t act much differently than he would during a White House visit.” Blake documents Petty’s 7 Cup Championships, 7 Daytona 500 wins…and his 200th victory on July 4th 1984, in front of President Ronald Reagan. Blake chronicles Petty’s career from his first race at age 21 through his well-named “Fan Appreciation Tour.”

6. “Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Inside the Rise of a NASCAR Superstar” By Ron Lemasters, Jr. and Al Pearce/Photographs by Nigel Kinrade and Harold Hinson - Racing biographies are often abysmal. This one is excellent. There is a good chance you’ll read its 192 pages in one sitting. I did. Why is Dale Earnhardt Junior SO popular? Budweiser’s Kathy Casso says, “He’s genuine... He’s NASCAR’s most popular driver because he’s real. He’d proven himself by winning two Busch Championships, he had that great last name... he drinks beer, likes music, and he’s really good in the race car.”

Monte Dutton nailed it when he said, “If this was the 1950’s, Jeff Gordon would be Pat Boone and Dale Jr. would be Elvis. Both were good singers but you know who had the most fans.” Bingo! The book is full of marvelous stories about Junior AND his dad. It tells of Dale’s tragic death at the 2001 Daytona 500…and Junior’s miraculous victory in the 2001 Pepsi 400…the next race on the same track that claimed his father.

5. “Along for the Ride: A Collection of Stories from the Fast and Furious World of Stock Car Racing” By Larry Woody - Larry Woody’s sense of humor leaps from his book. “All the stories you are about to read are true. An occasional name has been changed to protect the guilty.” What credentials earned Woody his dream job of covering racing? “The first stock car race I ever saw, I covered. I never had the slightest desire to watch a race. I don’t know a manifold from a mule’s butt. I can barely pump my own gas at a self-service station.” Larry’s first racing assignment for “The Tennessean” came about when a colleague had a “death” in the family and Woody covered for him. “I don’t recall much about the race except it was just about the most exciting thing I’d ever seen.” Larry was hooked for more than 30 years.

Along for the Ride: A Collection of Stories from the Fast and Furious World of Stock Car Racing By Larry Woody. (Image: SPEED) » More Photos

Woody tells stories about Richard and Lee Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Bobby Allison, Neil Bonnet, Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Gordon, Sterling Marlin, Bobby Hamilton, Benny Parsons, Junior Johnson, Harry Gant, Buddy Baker and many others. He can condense and crystallize his thought into a few words. To critics of Jeff Gordon who said Gordon would have been nothing without crew chief Ray Evernham’s genius, Woody writes, “Evernham was just the caddy that handed Gordon his club.”