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

by Bechtel, Mark

• ISBN13: 9780316034036
• ISBN10: 0316034037
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-02-02
• Publisher: Back Bay Books

Summary

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 finish that was just the start of the drama - everything changed for what is now America's second most popular sport. HE CRASHED ME SO I CRASHED HIM BACK is the story of an emerging sport trying to find its feet. It's the story 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 frenzied 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.

Author Biography

Mark Bechtel is a senior editor for Sports Illustrated. Previously, he covered NASCAR for the magazine. A native of Alabama, he now lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
Something Borrowed, Something Blue	p. 3
Birthplace of Speed	p. 19
The Good Ol'Boys	p. 36
The Prince	p. 59
The Man in the White Hat	p. 76
On the Air	p. 86
So Fair and Foul a Day	p. 96
The Fight	p. 119
Round Two	p. 138
Round Three	p. 148
Wild and Young, Crazy and Dumb	p. 154
Diamonds As Big As Horse Turds	p. 166
Pearson's Kerfuffle	p. 176
Old Chow Mein	p. 192
Bring on the Dancing Bears	p. 203
Gassed	p. 213
Rising Again	p. 224
The Gatorade Kid	p. 236
The Beginning of the Trouble	p. 244
Pretty Good Americans	p. 256
The Shootout	p. 271
Epilogue	p. 281
Acknowledgments	p. 292
Notes on Sources	p. 295
Bibliography	p. 299
Index	p. 301
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.