“Moonshiners put more time, energy, thought, and love into
their cars than any racer ever will. Lose on the track and
you go home. Lose with a load of whiskey and you go to
jail.” —Junior Johnson, NASCAR legend and one-time whiskey
runner
Today’s NASCAR is a family sport with 75
million loyal fans, which is growing bigger and more
mainstream by the day. Part Disney, part Vegas, part Barnum
& Bailey, NASCAR is also a multibillion-dollar business
and a cultural phenomenon that transcends geography, class,
and gender. But dark secrets lurk in NASCAR’s past.
Driving with the Devil uncovers for the first
time the true story behind NASCAR’s distant,
moonshine-fueled origins and paints a rich portrait of the
colorful men who created it. Long before the sport of
stock-car racing even existed, young men in the rural,
Depression-wracked South had figured out that cars and speed
were tickets to a better life. With few options beyond the
farm or factory, the best chance of escape was running
moonshine. Bootlegging offered speed, adventure, and wads of
cash—if the drivers survived. Driving with the Devil
is the story of bootleggers whose empires grew during
Prohibition and continued to thrive well after Repeal, and
of drivers who thundered down dusty back roads with
moonshine deliveries, deftly outrunning federal agents. The
car of choice was the Ford V-8, the hottest car of the
1930s, and ace mechanics tinkered with them until they could
fly across mountain roads at 100 miles an hour.
After fighting in World War II, moonshiners
transferred their skills to the rough, red-dirt racetracks
of Dixie, and a national sport was born. In this dynamic era
(1930s and ’40s), three men with a passion for Ford
V-8s—convicted criminal Ray Parks, foul-mouthed mechanic Red
Vogt, and crippled war veteran Red Byron, NASCAR’s first
champion—emerged as the first stock car “team.” Theirs is
the violent, poignant story of how moonshine and fast cars
merged to create a new sport for the South to call its own.
Driving with the Devil is a fascinating look
at the well-hidden historical connection between whiskey
running and stock-car racing. NASCAR histories will tell you
who led every lap of every race since the first official
race in 1948. Driving with the Devil goes deeper to
bring you the excitement, passion, crime, and death-defying
feats of the wild, early days that NASCAR has carefully
hidden from public view. In the tradition of Laura
Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit, this tale not only reveals
a bygone era of a beloved sport, but also the character of
the country at a moment in time.
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