Real Men Work in the Pits: A Life in NASCAR Racing

quite simply unputdownable - started reading in the afternoon and spent all night reading. loved it

Jeff Hammond has written a fantastic book. He's captured the racing action, development of the sport and most importantly some of the people that have made the sport what it is. `Real men work in the pits' is written in an easy reading, conversational manner that never seems forced, making it a hard book to put down once you've started reading. NASCAR very rarely screens on TV in Australia, and when it does it's often a five minute highlights package so you never get to see a whole race. But even for someone with low exposure to the sport it's still a great book to read. If you're a fan of any sort of motor sport, then you'll enjoy this book for the spirit of competition. Even if you're not into racing, this book would still make an enjoyable read for the colourful way in which the likes of Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, and Junior Johnson are described and one man's career in racing is told. Well worth adding to your bookshelf.

I started reading this book when I went to bed and couldn't put it down until it was finished. Jeff writes about his father racing dirt tracks and how he worked with his uncle on his dad's race car at the age of 12. From those days, he and his brother went on to build cars on their own and get drivers to drive for them. This led to Jeff putting aside his dream for playing college football and become involved with Junior Johnson's team working his way up the ranks to Crew Chief. I found it interesting to read about the relationship Junior had with his workers and the respect that was held for him. There are many neat personal stories about Cal Yarbrough, Junior Johnson and many pages about the relationship Darrell Waltrip had with Jeff before and after becoming his crew chief. The underlying thread in this book from my perspective was the loyalty Jeff had for his family, Junior, teammates and friends. I really enjoyed the book and hope someday to meet Jeff in person.

If there is any sport that is team oriented but where the team gets almost no recognition it's NASCAR racing. The driver gets all the glory, the kisses of the pretty girls, the photographs holding the trophy. This book is a story of almost thirty years of being in the crew, a lot of years as the jack man. I've always thoought that the jack man had just about the hardest job of them all -- those jacks are heavy, they've got to be positioned right, and they've got to be moved fast. I guess that's a good place to start, because from there he went on to become one of the more successful crew chiefs in the business. The book is one that will delight NASCAR fans. It's the inside story of what goes on behind the scenes, it's what you have to do to win races, it's the people who were there during the time when NASCAR was moving from the small unknown side aspect of racing to the big time national sport that it is today. It is the stories of the people that make this such an enjoyable book.