Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR

by Neal Thompson

“Moonshiners put more time, energy, thought, and love into their cars than any racer ever will. Lose on the track and you go home. Lose with a load of whiskey and you go to jail.” —Junior Johnson, NASCAR legend and one-time whiskey runner

Today’s NASCAR is a family sport with 75 million loyal fans, which is growing bigger and more mainstream by the day. Part Disney, part Vegas, part Barnum & Bailey, NASCAR is also a multibillion-dollar business and a cultural phenomenon that transcends geography, class, and gender. But dark secrets lurk in NASCAR’s past.

Driving with the Devil uncovers for the first time the true story behind NASCAR’s distant, moonshine-fueled origins and paints a rich portrait of the colorful men who created it. Long before the sport of stock-car racing even existed, young men in the rural, Depression-wracked South had figured out that cars and speed were tickets to a better life. With few options beyond the farm or factory, the best chance of escape was running moonshine. Bootlegging offered speed, adventure, and wads of cash—if the drivers survived. Driving with the Devil is the story of bootleggers whose empires grew during Prohibition and continued to thrive well after Repeal, and of drivers who thundered down dusty back roads with moonshine deliveries, deftly outrunning federal agents. The car of choice was the Ford V-8, the hottest car of the 1930s, and ace mechanics tinkered with them until they could fly across mountain roads at 100 miles an hour.

After fighting in World War II, moonshiners transferred their skills to the rough, red-dirt racetracks of Dixie, and a national sport was born. In this dynamic era (1930s and ’40s), three men with a passion for Ford V-8s—convicted criminal Ray Parks, foul-mouthed mechanic Red Vogt, and crippled war veteran Red Byron, NASCAR’s first champion—emerged as the first stock car “team.” Theirs is the violent, poignant story of how moonshine and fast cars merged to create a new sport for the South to call its own.

Driving with the Devil is a fascinating look at the well-hidden historical connection between whiskey running and stock-car racing. NASCAR histories will tell you who led every lap of every race since the first official race in 1948. Driving with the Devil goes deeper to bring you the excitement, passion, crime, and death-defying feats of the wild, early days that NASCAR has carefully hidden from public view. In the tradition of Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit , this tale not only reveals a bygone era of a beloved sport, but also the character of the country at a moment in time.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Sports, Racing, American History, Cars, Cultural

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

I'm the author of Kickflip Boys: A Memoir of Freedom, Rebellion, and the Chaos of Fatherhood (May 2018). Tony Hawk called it "fun, moving, raw and relatable.” Michael Chabon said it "captures the ache, fizz, yearning and frustration of being the father of adolescent boys." Maria Semple calls it "a riveting, touching, and painful read! My stomach was in knots page after page."

I've written four other books - stories about flawed and adventurous men - and have blabbed about those on ESPN, the History Channel, PBS, C-Span, Fox, TNT, and NPR. Plus five minutes on The Daily Show.

My previous book, A CURIOUS MAN - a bio of eccentric world-traveling millionaire/playboy cartoonist Robert 'Believe It or Not' Ripley - was an Oprah.com Book of the Week, an Amazon Best of the Month, and a PEN Center USA award finalist. Ben Fountain said (on NPR): "Anyone who wants to understand America needs to read this book … Neal Thompson gives us a vivid portrait of this complex, restless man in all his maniacally conflicted glory."

Other books: Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels and the Birth of NASCAR; Light This Candle: The Life & Times of Alan Shepard, America’s First Spaceman; and Hurricane Season: A Coach, His Team, and their Triumph in the Time of Katrina.

As a journalist, I've written for Outside, Esquire, Men’s Health, Backpacker, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more. I spent more than a decade as a newspaper reporter, including the Baltimore Sun, St. Petersburg Times, Bergen Record, Roanoke Times, and Philadelphia Inquirer. I've taught creative non-fiction at Seattle's Hugo House and at the University of North Carolina’s Great Smokies Writing Program, and served on the board of Seattle Arts & Lectures.

I'm a runner, reader, skier, stand-up paddleboarder, yogi, and a fan of brown liquor. I'm a naturalized Irish citizen, a mediocre guitar player. I'm from New Jersey.

Reviews

[Jeff Koslowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a very readable book. Once you start, it's pretty easy to knock 30 pages out. It's also an enjoyable look into the very modest roots of what is today a multi billion dollar sport.

The only knock I have is regarding the author's point in the introduction about this being more than just bootlegging and moonshine's role. While true, he does come back to it a lot so as a reader, I'm left a little confused.

Still, it is a must read for any racing fan.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh Rapid Roy that stock car boy
He's the best driver in the lan'
He say that he learned to race a stock car
By runnin' shine outta Alabam'
(Jim Croce, "Rapid Roy")

Today’s NASCAR is big business on par with the NFL, but it didn’t start out that respectable. The inventors of the sport were backwoods rebels, supplying populations with forbidden liquor. Savvy drivers and genius mechanics combined to outwit the law by night, and each other on the weekend -- but as their sport grew, it attracted big money and men who wanted to turn out the rabble and put it on par with Indy car racing. Driving with the Devil opens with sections on the Scots-Irish, Prohibition, and the rise of car culture before focusing on one man’s campaign to wrangle or impose order on an increasingly popular sport in the postwar years. Who knew whiskey and racing would make such a good combination?

Early American history is besotted with liquor, distilled beverages being the chief source of income for many pioneers and a frequent source of conflict between the people and the government. In an age of meager transportation options, distilling corn or other grains into potable beverages was the only way to sell produce inland, and attempts to impose taxes on said liquor kicked off more than one rebellion, including the famed Whiskey Rebellion of 1791. Long before Prohibition barred the production and sale of alcohol, Americans had a history of fighting for their untampered tippling. During Prohibition, liquor continued to be produced in the mountainous woodlands of the mid-south, and delivered to urban centers through young men desperate to escape rural poverty – desperate enough to risk their life and freedom speeding or sneaking through unlit paths through the hills and woods to places like Atlanta. Bootleg driving put special demands on cars; not only did they need to be faster than the revenuers, but they needed to handle high speeds on rough roads without destroying the cargo. Boys and men fascinated by the new machines developed a culture of study and tinkering, learning to master and improve the engines that Ford had wrought. Not content to exhibit their work or drink in the flush of adrenaline by night, drivers and mechanics began pitting their talents against one another in farmfields, racing for bragging rights and money.

Auto racing already existed as an organized sport before these bootleggers’ races; the American Automobile Association organized races for the same reason Henry Ford did, to popularize automobiles. The racecars used there, however, were specially and solely designed for racing: the bootleggers were racing ‘stock’ cars, factory-built for consumers, and then modifying them to their own needs. Bootleggers weren’t the only ones racing, but their nightly practice gave them a leg up – as did their organizations. Raymond Park, who operated one of the most notorious north-Georgia bootlegging operations, also fielded one of the first racing teams -- which included a wizard with Ford engines named Red Vogt, and two superb drivers, Lloyd Seay and Roy Hall, the latter a man with such a following that he inspired two songs. Running races wasn't just backwoods fun, though; Parks and men like Bill France realized money could be made organizing and promoting the races. This was an uphill battle, what with the law watching their drivers and World War 2 suspending automobile production and sending drivers out into the wild blue yonder -- literally, as one driver joined a B-29 crew. Racing was a dangerous sport, too, to both drivers and spectators: during one race a blowout sent a car into the crowd, with seventeen hospitalized and one buried. Not all deaths happened on the course: after winning a national championship, wheeling idol Lloyd Seay was shot in the woods over moonshine finances.

Slowly but steadily, France's organization drew in the majority of drivers, attracted by his larger cash rewards, his talent for producing races that were genuine shows, and the opportunity of winning acclaim by racing against the biggest names. France's forcefulness, that energy that helped make his races a success, was also directed against drivers who wouldn't play ball, either by cheating on him by racing in other leagues, or cheating in the races with illegal modifications. Eventually France would succeed in creating an institution, NASCAR, that had cleaned itself up for the big-city newspapers: the bootleg heroes were either playing nice, dead, or had gotten tired of fighting with Big Bill. Either way, the ranks were filling with drivers outside the cast of whiskey-trippers, as young men around the South and even outside it wanted to try their hand at racing for cash.

Watching billboards race around in circles has never sparked my interest, but Driving with the Devil certainly held it. There is immediate attraction in the cast of characters, poor farmboys making a living by running from the law, delivering liquid refreshment through skill, adrenaline, and more than a little luck. Admirable, too, are the mechanics like Vogt who were introduced to new machines and so devotedly studied them that they created a weapon on wheels -- and the delightful chaos of '39 Fords tearing circles in red dirt, careening over cliffs or into lakes, has lot more appeal than modern racing. This is the story that Neil Thompson delivers, ending as 'modern' NASCAR with its paved oval tracks and truly national appeal is taking off. As a story, it's superb, but as a book it has few issues under the hood. Thompson chronically repeats himself, and sometimes to absurd levels. Towards the end, for instance, cited facts occur twice within a single page turn. A little editing would fix that, but somewhat more questionable are the historical allusions Thompson makes, like having Hitler refer to Lindbergh as the leader of American Fascism. This defamation is taken seriously by Thompson, who also believes the KKK supported Prohibition out of racial motives, when it was part of their full complement of social police hypocrisy. When it comes to writing about the whiskey and racing, however, he sticks closer to the facts.

Great fun!

Related:
"Racing Extinction with Leilia Munter", a recent episode of StarTalk Radio with an..environmental-activist-NASCAR- driver?
http://www.startalkradio.net/show/rac...

Last Call: the Rise and Fall of Prohibition, Daniel Okrent
http://thisweekatthelibrary.blogspot....

[Gavin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about the start of NASCAR. This book will take you through a thrill-seeking adventure through the history of bootleggers modifying cars to run from the cops to making stoke car racing a sport. If you love cars and especially NASCAR, you must read.

[James J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Born in and raised around NASCAR, I never really paid attention to the sport. Listening to the automotive podcast Car Stuff, the hosts covered the topic of moonshine runners and read a short excerpt from this book. The wild stories of revenue agents versus bootleggers made me intensely interested in reading the entire book. Neal Thompson has an ability to make potentially dry historical narratives entertaining. The figures described in the book bought my empathy. I even developed some favorite drivers and cheered for them. For someone only vaguely interested in the origins of NASCAR, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the read.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book transformed me into a lover of NASCAR’s history if not NASCAR. Neal has a wonderful ability to make the reader feel inside the story and to begin cheering for the people he describes. My hero was Red Byron, NASCAR’s first champ and a veteran of WWII who was in constant pain from a war injury to his leg. I also enjoyed reading about how moonshiners learned to race as they sped away from the police, about why people became moonshiners, and why people wanted to drink this illegal fluid.

[Maksym · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raymond Parks funded the spirit of bootleggers through his various business enterprises, Red Vogt tuned their machines, and Red Byron was the 1st champion with a dead leg. All three shared humility in their successes, which were foundational for NASCAR.

Neal does a great job of explaining how these three men along with bootleggers became hero’s of the south but needed the persistent desire for structure from Bill France to spread north. Bill wore down his peers but never forgot their importance. Unfortunately, he never marketed their personalities but hid them.

Thankfully Neal Thompson shares the stories of these American men who were NASCAR.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soundtrack from a song in this book that is perfect for where many of the first racecar drivers came from and captures so much of their types, etc (tragedy as well) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSIub...

Oh, my gosh, well now this was a treat. The writing is fabulous and for the first chapters I was sure this would be a 5 star read for me. That said, even though the writing is really good, I got a bit glassy-eyed at times with some of the chapters focused more on improving cars, etc. in other parts. I wanted to read this fast for a game, but found myself slowing down to savour the writing. It took me well over a week or so to read this so I could do just that and not let my team down. I plan to read more by this author

If you are going to read only ONE book on the history of any sort of auto racing or NASCAR, and you like really good fiction with writing that isn't geared only to auto racing fans, this book is for you. It was fascinating to read about the lives of some of the key people in this when written so very well and strongly. It's kind of like Boys in the Boat meets NASCAR, but it is, of course, a different writer with a very different voice, so don't go right from Boys in the Boat to this book expecting to go from bread to bread--you are going from apples to oranges but both when they are really good.

[AnnaRichelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done! I applaud the amount of research Neal Thompson did to present as thorough a story as he could about the origination of stock car racing. Even if you’re not a huge racing fan you will be entertained and may even learn something new. I really enjoyed this book!

[Denise Lamonte · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most interesting aspect of this book is that NASCAR was born out of the drivers who delivered bootleg whiskey. What characters!
The book is worth listening to, though I don't think it could have kept my attention if I were reading from the physical book (I think it should have been edited to 2/3rds it's length).

[Sierra · Rating 4 out of 5]

if you like nascar, then this book is for you

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book about how Nascar started. With Roy Hall going to jail what three times? Lloyd Seay's death. Bill France owning Nascar. And all about before Nascar and when Nascar started.

[Jim Fahey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book. I did not know about the NASCAR roots connection to running moonshine nor the moonshine connection to the Irish equivalent poitin. Amazing how Bill France and the France family have been able to grow and control NASCAR all these years.

[R.E. Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Car racing and moonshine are as Southern as fried chicken and sweet tea, and one of the things the corporate suits who run NASCAR are eager to forget is how not just their sport of stock car racing, but their very own racing organization is based squarely on a foundation of moonshining and bootlegging. Just in case anyone does, Neal Thompson’s Driving With The Devil will serve as a reminder, every bit as bracing as a belt of sweet white lightning.

Driving With The Devil relates the story of how a mostly North Georgia- and Atlanta-based circle of moonshine running drivers and ace mechanics associated with Raymond Parks, a one-time moonshine baron turned legitimate businessman and stock car race team owner. In following the adventures of Parks and his associates, including NASCAR legend Red Byron, Thompson charts the development of stock car racing from a red Georgia clay dirt tracks to the birth of NASCAR under Bill France (a non-bootlegger driver and promoter from Florida), and into the 1950s consolidation of stock car racing under the NASCAR banner.

In so doing, Thompson spins a story that is about more than just moonshine and driving hot cars. By weaving in threads such as the South’s Scotch-Irish cultural roots, the Depression and the Second World War, and the life of Henry Ford, whose cars were so popular with bootleggers and therefore with early stock car drivers as well, the book is really taking a snapshot of a broad facet of American life in the first half of the 20th Century.

The version I worked with was the audio book, narrated by race historian Buz McKim. If anything, McKim’s telling of Driving With The Devil enhances this tale of bootlegging and NASCAR. McKim’s modestly folksy style is engaging and meshes wonderfully with the subject matter. The sole drawback of the audio version is that listening to the tight descriptions of the race sequences while driving, which is what many do with audio books, might prompt some to get a little carried away with the gas pedal or taking corners. I know I did.

Readers interested in learning more about moonshining and bootlegging in pre-war North Georgia will be drawn to Driving With The Devil for the first third of the book, but I think the real audience for Thompson’s book (and its McKim’s audio version) are in two groups: those with an abiding love of Southern culture, and diehard racing fans. For those people, this is a must-listen.

[Bob Schmitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book about the origins of NASCAR in the mountains of North Carolina and Georgia, from the winding, dirt, unbanked mountain roads of Appalachia where revenue agents could not catch the young kids in their hopped-up Fords, to dirt tracks around Atlanta to the sands of Daytona beach. From the hard living criminals who raced around tracks and tried to stay out of jail to the slick business men who now make millions.

Henry Ford felt that cars should be driven slow but realized that fast cars were viewed as better built and began to sponsor racers.

Bootlegger so named because they initially hid whiskey in their boots.

The word alcohol comes from "al kohl" Arabic for "the spirit" the mind altering liquid first developed in Iraq. The recipe migrated across North Africa to the Moors, to Spain and France and then by the Celts to Ireland where "Aqua Vitae" the water of life became "uisque breatha" in Gaelic which was anglicized to whiskey.

The Scots-Irish fled British oppression in the 1700's fought them in the Revolutionary war and after the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 fled in mass the the hills of Appalachia.

A fast paced book with tons on interesting small tid-bits and quite a lot of nostalgia.

[OK Dad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read, and I'm not even a fan of NASCAR. In fact, after reading this, I'm less a fan of NASCAR than I ever was but a huge fan of what Stock Car racing was before NASCAR came along.

These boys were the real deal. Make even Dale Sr. look like a wuss.

[Susanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book as part of the 2022 NC Humanities “NC reads” series. I really love that series because I’m reading books I wouldn’t have given a second glance to in the bookstore. This is one of those books. I don’t care for NASCAR. I never watch it and I’m suspicious of the NASCAR culture. But keeping an open mind, I read this book and came away with a better understanding of not just NASCAR but Southern culture as well. Curiously, the unrelated question I always fall back to-why do poor southern people tend to support politics that are not to their personal benefit—is answered in this book with the history of the extremely independent Scots-Irish who populated large swaths of the South. They just want to be left alone, do their own thing, and have no desire to contribute to anyone else’s well being. So I get that now. Back to NASCAR —Because I now have a better understanding of how stock car racing came to be, I do have a better appreciation of the race. Still not enough to attend one or watch more than 5 laps of a race, but I get it now. I appreciated how the author, a Northerner transplanted to the South, embraced his new home and delved into the history—a great example of an open mindset.

[Harron68 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I swear, it's not nostalgia to see how important the past is to where we are now. This book does justice to the "moonshining" nights of american stock car racing drivers. Filled with colorful characters, few of whom ever found fame or fortune, the tales tell how the organizing of these rebels into a league of sorts came to be. Bill France is, naturally, vital to the sport. His desire for success of racing, and his twin goals of gaining wealth and power made him a king (or tyrant, as numerous drivers and fans say).
Of prime interest to me are the drivers, almost all moonshiners who found success in outrunning the law by hot-rodding their machines and driving them to the limit. Oh how I'd like to go back in time to see some of those races on those long gone tracks..
The author does a great job in highlighting the best drivers of the pre-World War Two and into the fifties. Later years are skimmed over, left to books on later decades of NASCAR. Four stars. I'd give it more, but this is more than a 'general interest' look at racing history.

[Christen Wilbanks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I moved to Georgia in 2000 and have tried to understand this area where my husband's family grew up. The stories of these young men and what they did to make a living really gave me such terrific insight. Not because he has Moonshiners in his family tree but because of how rural it really was. I could imagine what those roads must have been like around Dawsonville, Atlanta and North Georgia.

I'm not a NASCAR fan, but I am a fan of history and I loved how Thompson put all the key pieces in place. NASCAR can tell their own story, but I will believe that Parks was the real key behind it all over the years.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe this was a very good book, it was filled with some of my favorite things. I have a love for NASCAR and auto racing. If you want to know how NASCAR got started ands all of the original hero's in it this is the book for you. This book will take you way back to the days of moonshine and true outlaws. If the moonshiners of the 30s and 40s never raced and souped up cars there would be no NASCAR. I think that this is one of the best books I have read because it has interesting facts and its all about what I love. If you like NASCAR this is the book for you.

[Paul Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Expected pedestrian sports history for the hardcore NASCAR fan, but instead experienced a fascinating and highly readable cultural history of the South in the first half the 20th century. The historian's lens is how the birth of the automobile plus the prevalence of moonshine birthed stock car racing. A special treat for someone from the Atlanta area. The action centers around transporting moonshine from Dawsonville to Atlanta via the "Whiskey Highway" (aka "Thunder Road") - we know it as Highway 9!

[Michael Ascher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was great; really well paced. It's been a while, but the author really described the time/setting well and developed some great personalities. Little things stick with me - the Georgia red clay, the moonshining process, the best mechanic being an absolute neat freak. Just a bunch of great stories about big personalities as the sport developed. If I had one criticism, I would have loved to have done more tracing of the roots of NASCAR to present day . . . but that's a longer book. Very much recommend.

[Walt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fascinating tale of NASCAR's true origin story. This book isn't just the early history of one America's largest sports franchises, its also to some extent the history of moonshine and the reemergence of the South in the early 20th century. The pages are filed with a cast of characters straight out of a novel. It was a really interesting story. You don't have to be a fan of NASCAR or of moonshine to enjoy this book (but you might be by the time you finish it).

[Ryan Canady · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the deep dive into NASCAR's history and some of the unsung pioneers, but I felt that the author was unnecessarily harsh about Bill France's role in creating and taking control of NASCAR. Not that Bill did everything above board or always looked out for everyone's best interest instead of just his own, but I don't think he was as big of a villain as this book tried to paint him to be. Some of the book was also a bit clunky and other parts repetitive, but I did like it overall.

[Kellyanne Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read several racing histories and still learned a lot that I hadn’t known. I appreciated how the author spent three years reviewing literature and talking with the only surviving pioneer of NASCAR. My only criticism is his painting women as only being interested in racing now because of cute drivers. It’s a stereotype that female fans like myself have fought for years.

[Kenneth Flusche · Rating 4 out of 5]

an interesting pre-history of NASCAR.. a little wordy and repetitious losing the 5th star. still a very good read. Jack London used to get paid by the word Ford, France, Red add up to a pretty penny.

[David Cavaco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting for motor-heads and non-racing fans alike. This book looks at the connection between southern moonshiners and the rise of stock car racing such as NASCAR. This book delves into racing, moonshine and prohibition, and the South's peculiar culture and demographics. Great book!

[Natalie Steed · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5. Fascinating Story of moonshine, the early history of racing, and NASCAR. I really had a little knowledge about all three of these. Interesting to peek into a portion of history that is new to you and see the complicated yet captivating details of the past. Page turner

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Stories- worth the read if you’re a NASCAR fan or just a fan of Southern History!

Read this in about 3 days. I couldn’t put it down. The story of Raymond Parks and all the original Whiskey Drivers was a great one!

[Les Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, very readable. Enjoyed learning a bit about moonshining. the southern culture and people involved that gave rise to NASCAR. The book also touches on other history such as how whiskey got it's name and involvement in WW II. Excellent read

[Carolyn Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Confession: I don't watch auto racing and probably never will, but I enjoyed this book, largely because of the people profiled and their often painful life stories, successes, and failures. Additional confession: I skipped over sections about organizational conflicts.