Cheating: An Inside Look at the Bad Things Good NASCAR Winston Cup Racers Do in the Pursuit of Speed

If you have ever wondered how Nascar teams try to better the rest of the field then this book is for you. It looks at the form of cheating or "being creative" in order to be the best race car out there. It looks at the sport from 1949 all the way till 2002 and how the rules have to changed to conform to the ever creative teams and the way in which they would modify the cars so as to not break the rules but to get an advantage. The book goes through each year and states are the rules were bent by the crews, and then how nascar wrote the rule to create an equal playing field.An example would be when fuel lines. In the 50's, they did not specify the length or diameter of the fuel lines. So one crew being as smart as they were, decided to use a very wide diameter to fit more gas into the tank. Nascar caught this and mandated a specific size of line to be used. This example is one of many types of rules that are broken that the book portrays and then shows how it is corrected.The book is full of information. The author took two years to write it by gathering many interviews from drivers to owners. Some even confess their ways of cheating, while others think best to keep it to themselves.This book is for any Nascar fan and non Nascar fan, as it provides a past and present view of how teams skirted or still jump out of the boundaries of Nascar Racing.

I thought the book was fascinating, even though I know little about cars and even less about NASCAR. It details how drivers, mechanics, and/or team owners have either attempted to skirt the NASCAR rules or even thumbed their noses at NASCAR officials, all to get a slight competitive edge on the rest of the racing field, and the book spans from the humble beginnings of NASCAR to the present-day sports juggernaut that NASCAR has become. Jensen's writing style is such that even those who do not have a great understanding of automobile mechanics can visualize just what alterations are being made to the vehicles, and he is consistent in explaining clearly just what advantage those alterations might give the drivers. To see the book solely as a history of how NASCAR participants have attempted to get a couple of extra miles per hour, miles per gallon, or laps on a set of tires does not do the work justice, though. It is also a case-study in risk-taking behavior as the book's subjects can be seen and heard, in their own words, weighing the benefits of winning versus the consequences of getting caught playing outside the rules and existing in the political arena which governs both. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys competition.