NASCAR Now

I have a standing order to have sent to me every book Tim Miller writes. But after reading this book I don't think this dude is the same man who wrote SHIRTS AND SKINS and other gay performance scripts. This book is a good one too, and I read it through from cover to cover, pausing to admire the many mint photographs. The book is lavishly illustrated with a lot of wire photos and close ups of important moments in stock car history. They have access to computer databases and can thus list the exact dollar amount won by their profiled drivers through all of recorded history (extra money is earned, of course, through private endorsements and these do not appear in the "career earnings") Tim Miller and Steve Milton do a great job outlining the history of NASCAR and how it grew from a tiny, low class racing circuit to the largest business in the world today. The cover says it all, three top drivers covered from head to waist with advertising logos of all kinds of companies. Bud, Champion, Home Depot, it's a sport in which men dress up as billboards then climb into cars with even more ads on them. On every page is an ad, but that's just part of the colorful history of NASCAR. Milton and Miller go into the way NASCAR used to have competitors, but they have since squashed all competition by the power of branding. Thus such famous drivers of the past as Mario Andretti and AJ Foyt didn't really align themselves with NASCAR at all, though you can bet your bottom dollar they'd do so today. In the past, Richard Petty held up the NASCAR tradition and singlehandedly made Americans aware of NASCAR as a reputable outfit. One section of NASCAR NOW profiles the up and coming drivers of tomorrow--the Dale Earnhardts of the future. LOL, it will be greart sport to keep this book around a few years and see how accurate Milton and Miller are at predicting who will be on top in, say, the year 2005 or 2010. For all we know, the great driver of the next generation is someone whose name we have not yet heard. Another cool section profiles the NASCAR masters of the past thirty years. Those were the days befor NEXTEL took over and instead the tobacco industry controlled the advertising, so the big prize was called the WINSTON CUP. Miller and Milton are sympathetic sportswriters and each has a flair for the winning phrase. Of Kyle Petty, they write, "Petty. the name resonates around stock car tracks like thunder through a canyon." Everyone loves a winner and this book has 'em on every page, and the photography is outstanding. Check out the fish eye lens that makes Sterling Marlin's 2003 Michigan entry look like a spaceship from way out in the Milky Way.

For NASCAR race fans, Timothy Miller and Steve Milton collaborate to provide the definitive inside scoop on NASCAR drivers, cars and crew including past and present legendary drivers, to their teams, their sponsors, and more. Packed with color photos throughout, NASCAR NOW provides interviews, case histories, team statistics and much, much more for the avid NASCAR fan.