Fixin to Git

Wright Jim Wright

Description

In the past twenty years, big-time stock-car racing has become America's fastest growing spectator sport. Winston Cup races draw larger audiences-at the tracks and on television-than any other sport, and drivers like Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin have become cultural icons whose endorsements command millions. What accounts for NASCAR's surging popularity?For years a "closeted" NASCAR fan, Professor Jim Wright took advantage of a sabbatical in 1999 to attend stock-car races at seven of the Winston Cup's legendary venues: Daytona, Indianapolis, Darlington, Charlotte, Richmond, Atlanta, and Talladega. The "Fixin' to Git Road Tour" resulted in this book-not just a travelogue of Wright's year at the races, but a fan's valentine to the spectacle, the pageantry, and the subculture of Winston Cup racing.Wright busts the myth that NASCAR is a Southern sport and takes on critics who claim that there's nothing to racing but "drive fast, turn left," revealing the skill, mental acuity, and physical stamina required by drivers and their crews. Mostly, though, he captures the experience of loyal NASCAR fans like himself, describing the drama in the grandstands-and in the bars, restaurants, parking lots, juke joints, motels, and campgrounds where race fans congregate. He conveys the rich, erotic sensory overload-the sights, the sounds, the smells, the feel-of weekends at the Winston Cup race tracks.

Sujets

• Motorsport
• Auto racing

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 25 juillet 2002
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822385363
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

FIXIN’ TO GIT

JIM WRIGHT

D U K E

U N I V E R S I T Y

A N D

P R E S S

D U R H A M

L O N D O N

2 0 0 2

FIXIN’ TO GIT

One Fan’s Love Affair with NASCAR’s Winston Cup

©  James Wright

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of

America on acid-free paper 

Designed by Rebecca Giménez

Typeset in Adobe Minion by

Tseng Information Systems, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-

in-Publication Data appear on

the last printed page of this book.

First printing in paperback, 

To my racing family:

The old Cowboy, now departed. May he rest in peace.

My sister, Nancy, and my brother, Kelley, boon companions at Indy and in life.

My race-fan in-laws Neil, Denise, Elaine, and Ed. To everyone, my thanks for everything.

And my beloved Chris, who’s not much for racing but thinks the people-watching’s a hoot.

Prelude: On the Road to Charlotte, 

1. Car Culture and the American Dream, 

Daytona Pilgrimage, 

2. Deconstructing NASCAR, 

Back Home Again in Indiana, 

3. Racin’ Basics, 

Lost in the Land of Cotton, 

4. The NASCAR Subculture, 

Short-Track Showdown, 

5. The Yankee Invasion, 

Nantahala Interlude, 

6. Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, 

Grand Finale in Atlanta, 

7. We Are Family, 

Notes, 

Index, 

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For various kindnesses large and small while this book was being writ- ten, I am pleased to thank Charlie Brody, Rhonda Coignet, Leigh Anne Couch, Laura Dail, Alison Dennis, Joel Devine, Joyce Deloach, Dave and Toni Fox, Rebecca Giménez, Ed Herbert, Jay Joyner, Neil Maller, Becca Matteo, Buz McKim, Patricia Mickelberry, Fetzer Mills, Steve Nock, John Shelton Reed, Laura Sanchez, Dwayne Smith, Daphne Spain, Teri Vail, Sondra Vogel, and Bill Wetherell. I also thank my dean at Tulane Uni- versity, Teresa Soufas, for granting me the sabbatical that made this book possible, two anonymous readers for their enthusiasm and careful read- ing, and a large number of editors and publishers whose inability to spot a winner even as they held it in their hands eventually led me to Miriam Angress and her capable staff at Duke University Press, who have been delightful.