Taking Stock: Life in NASCAR's Fast Lane

by Monte Dutton (Editor)

NASCAR’s Winston Cup Series has become one of America’s fastest-growing spectator sports, with nationwide television coverage, custom-built race cars, and superstar drivers. Yet the sport’s roots are grounded in the moonshiners and farm boys who raced souped-up family cars every weekend on the dirt tracks of the Southeast. The evolution of stock car racing from a band of regional weekend warriors into a billion-dollar industry sponsored by some of the nation’s largest corporations is explored by eight of the sport’s most respected and experienced chroniclers. Taking Stock includes previously unpublished stories about the past and present of racing, and it provides a close-up look at the characters, rich and poor, prominent and obscure, who possess the stuff of legends. This collection features racing stories by award-winning motorsports journalists Monte Dutton of the Gaston (GASTONIA, N.C.) Gazette , Kenny Bruce of NASCAR Winston Cup Scene , Mike Hembree of the Greenville (S.C.) News , Jim McLaurin of the State (Columbia, S.C.), Jeff Owens of NASCAR Winston Cup Scene , David Poole of the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer , Thomas Pope of the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer , and Larry Woody of the Tennessean (Nashville).

Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Monte Dutton lives in Clinton, South Carolina. In high school, he played football for a state championship team, then attended Furman University, Greenville, S.C., graduating in 1980, B.A., cum laude, political science/history.

He has written regularly about NASCAR since 1993, and has written for the Gaston Gazette (Gastonia, NC) since 1996. He was named Writer of the Year by the Eastern Motorsports Press Association (Frank Blunk Award) in 2003 and Writer of the Year by the National Motorsports Press Association (George Cunningham Award) in 2008. His NASCAR writing has been syndicated by King Feature Syndicate in the form of a weekly page, “NASCAR This Week.”

Monte Dutton is also the author of Pride of Clinton, a history of high school football in his hometown, 1986; At Speed, 2000 (Potomac Books); Rebel with a Cause: A Season with NASCAR’s Tony Stewart, 2001 (Potomac Books); Jeff Gordon: The Racer, 2001 (Thomas Nelson); Postcards from Pit Road, 2003 (Potomac Books); Haul A** and Turn Left, 2005 (Warner Books), True to the Roots: Americana Music Revealed, 2006. (Bison Books); and is an Editor/Contributor of Taking Stock: Life in NASCAR’s Fast Lane, 2004 (Potomac Books).

The Audacity of Dope, 2011 (Neverland Publishing) is his first novel, and he is hard at work on his second.