NASCAR 75 Years

Al Pearce saw his first NASCAR race in 1966 in Daytona Beach and covered his first race in July 1969 at Dover, Delaware for the Times-Herald of Newport News, Virginia. Since then, he’s covered thousands of NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula One, NHRA, and SCCA races for the Tribune Company (1969-2004) and Autoweek (1973-current). Pearce has authored thirteen books on racing, including Unseen Earnhardt: The Man Behind the Mask and Holman-Moody: The Legendary Race Team (with Tom Cotter). He lives in Newport News, Virginia. Mike Hembree has written about motorsports for four decades and is the author of fourteen books, including 100 Things NASCAR Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He has won numerous awards, including the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence. He also is a seven-time National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and a three-time winner of the Russ Catlin Award for motorsports journalism excellence. Hembree has covered auto racing for Autoweek, USA Today, the Greenville News, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, the SPEED Channel, and NASCAR Scene. His news media career also includes coverage of the NFL, the NBA, MLB, the Olympics, and professional golf. Mike lives in Gaffney, South Carolina.Kelly Crandall has been on the NASCAR beat full-time since 2013, and joined RACER.com as chief NASCAR writer in 2017. Her work has also appeared on NASCAR.com, NBC Sports, and in NASCAR Illustrated magazine. A corporate communications graduate from Central Penn College, Crandall is a two-time George Cunningham Writer of the Year recipient from the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) and currently serves as the organization’s president. She is also a regular co-host on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.  Jimmy Creed was born and raised in Talladega, Alabama, and started going to the track there at an early age. As the sports editor of The Anniston Star in nearby Anniston, Alabama, he twice received Alabama Sports Writer Association Story of the Year honors for stories written about the HANS Device and Davey Allison. He is the author of Donnie Allison: As I Recall, the official biography of the famed Alabama Gang member. A 1989 graduate of the University of Alabama in journalism, he also served as the editor of Saints Digest, the official publication of the New Orleans Saints from 1992 to 1996. He currently resides in Talladega.

Contents
The 1940s and 1950s              Hot Wheels and Dirt Tracks
The 1960s                               Racing into the Superspeedway Era
The 1970s                               Shifting into High Gear
The 1980s                               Reaching the Threshold of Speed
The 1990s                               Earnhardt and Gordon Drive the Sport Forward
The 2000s                               A New and Dark Millennium
The 2010s                               Quintessential NASCAR
The 2020s and Beyond           Next (Gen)eration
 
About the Writers
Image Credits
Index