He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back: The True Story of the Year the King, Jaws, Earnhardt, and the Rest of NASCAR’s Feudin’, Fightin’ Good Ol’ Boys Put Stock Car Racing on the Map
Where to buy He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back: The Right Tale of the Year the King, Jaws, Earnhardt, and the Rest of NASCAR’s Feudin’, Fightin’ Excellent Ol’ Boys Place Stock Car Racing on the Map books online?
- ISBN13: 9780316034029
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
On a cold February day in 1979, when most of the Northeast was snowed in by a blizzard, NASCAR entered the American consciousness with a dramatic telecast of the Daytona 500. It was the first 500-mile race to be broadcast live on national television and featured the heroes and legends of the sport racing on a hallowed track. With one of the wildest finishes in sports history–a end that was just the start of the drama–everything changed for what is now America’s second most well loved sport.
HE CRASHED ME SO I CRASHED HIM BACK is the tale of an emerging sport trying to find its feet. It’s the tale of how Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison, Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, A.J. Foyt, and Kyle Petty came together in an unforgettable season that featured the first nationally televised NASCAR races. There were rivalries–even the sibling kind–and plenty of fistfights, feuds, and hyperactive finishes. Rollicking and full of larger-than-life characters, HE CRASHED ME SO I CRASHED HIM BACK is the remarkable tale of the birth of modern stock-car racing.
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NASCAR has permanently fascinated me. I want to have the confidence to get out there and race. The thrill of the drive would be such an adrenaline rush. He Crashed Me is a thrilling read about NASCAR drivers. These people risk their lives in these races, all for the joy of the sport. There are fights, enemies and crazy fans. The right tales was one of my favorite things about this book. If you like NASCAR and drama, this is the book for you.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
First of all, I have to say how much I loved the title of this book! I felt as though the leader was sticking out his tongue at a name and adage “la, la, la, la,la, la”.
This book is really a very thorough and informative look at one of the world’s largest attractions (for men at least) – Nascar racing!!! Yes, for all of you women who loose your men to the TV set every weekend, you can read up on how and when this race really started.
Living in Montreal, where the Grand Prix is such a huge deal, I have permanently been a small curious at the whole “race car” fascination. To me, its just a bunch of loud cars going round and round and round. But, yet, the birth of Nascar in 1979 was reasonably appealing. I reflect what I liked the best was how all the players such as Bobbie and Donnie Allison and Richrad and Kyle Petty really contributed to the importance of that first race – while keeping their own small personality traits and defaults alive and well. This obviously is where the title of the book comes from.
This is not a read for everybody. But, if you are interested in how things start and seem to take on a momentum of their own, this book is an appealing read.
Why do I reflect this one will be bought mainly by men? or for men?
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
NASCAR doesn’t have the literary pedigree of sports like baseball and boxing, and anyone who reads He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back will have a very hard time understanding why. The essence of any fantastic sports book–any nonfiction book, for that matter–is personality; hence Andre Agassi’s memoir sells a bazillion copies, while The Roger Federer Tale (what, you missed it when it came out in 2007?) barely makes a ripple. This book drips with personality: To say guys like Petty, Waltrip, Earnhardt, France, Suitcase Jake and the dozens of additional endearing facts drifting through the garage in the ’70s were characters doesn’t do them justice. Bechtel recreates that world with humor and precision. Respect too, which is no tiny thing; it would have been simple to write a book full of caricatures, but He Crashed Me is anything but. It’s one thing to collect war tales from the track, something all these guys have a million of and clearly like to tell. It’s another to make the reader taste the fumes and smell the cigarette smoke wafting out of David Pearson’s car. Bechtel pulls it off.
There’s plenty in here to keep diehard NASCAR followers glued to the page; race by race, chapter by chapter, the ‘79 seasons unfolds like a serialized novel. Fans of modern stock car racing may barely admit the world depicted in He Crashed Me. The fighting; the seat-of-the-pants race prep; the bear wrestling and on-a-lark skydiving (you are The Man, Cale Yarborough)… it all seems so foreign to a sport that for the most part now is scrubbed clean and corporate. But the cars were quick, the wrecks were scary and plentiful, and the paint tradin’ was backed by genuine emotion. It’s simple to see why the millions of people snowed in across the country during the ‘79 Daytona 500 liked what they saw on CBS. It’s simple to see why, as Bechtel argues, NASCAR Nation was essentially born that day.
But you don’t have to be a citizen of the Nation to appreciate this book. The writing, backed by very levelheaded research and reporting, is superb. And Bechtel offers some appealing and insightful 1970s cultural commentary, explaining why the US of A was ready to embrace stock car racing, even if all persons people wearing cowboy hats and giggling at Smokey and the Bandit didn’t know it at the time. NASCAR diehard or racing novice, you’ll like He Crashed Me. It’s one of the most amusing and best-written sports books in memory.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Bought this as a gift but read parts of it prior to giving it. It is an brilliant past and humorous read for anyone who follows NASCAR and enjoys the “Golden Era” of stock car racing.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
Bechtel has written what a I view is one of the top books ever written about NASCAR. A lot of terrible ones have been published, and only a few are not only excellent – but also stand the test of time. This book is certainly a must read today – and I judge it’ll hold up in the long run. Bechtel does a fantastic job telling tales that haven’t been told before or haven’t been in heavy circulation. I’ve followed NASCAR and the Pettys since the mid 1970s. And this book is full of all kinds of trivia nuggets about them I never knew. He also does a nice job of weaving in American society, economy, and politics of the late 70s/early 80s era into the book – and paints a picture of how they affected NASCAR. I only noticed one known factual error in the book. He says Cale Yarborough’s Olds in the 1979 Daytona 500 was sponsored by Holly Farms Chicken (pg 116). Of course, its commonly known the #11 was sponsored by Busch beer in 1979-80. Beyond that though, the tales were fresh, well told, and well documented. Bechtel also does a fantastic job distancing himself and the reader from inferring too much from interviews with drivers, owners, and promoters. Frequently, he interviewed more than one source for a tale. Not surprisingly, he got multiple versions of a tale from everyone who supposedly had a first-hand encounter with the tale. All in all, a fantastic read.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5