NASCAR's Coca Cola 600 . . .

. . . is underway again, after being delayed due to weather yesterday. I'm not a big NASCAR fan, but tend to keep loose track of it.

But, there are a couple of good books I'd recommend to get a flavor of the old and new NASCAR. For the old NASCAR I can heartily recommend Robert Edelstein's biography of Curtis Turner, "Full Throttle: the Life and Fast Times of NASCAR Legend Curtis Turner". Exceptionally well written with a sensitivity to the character of Curtis Turner that I believe ranks high in the pantheon of all the biographies in literature. Edelstein's literary construction of Curtis Turner's reaction to the death of Joe Weatherly is masterful.

For the new NASCAR there's "Sunday Money". As good a sendup as you could wish - in a league with Jim Bouton's, "Ball Four" (though without the author, Jeff MacGregor, being an insider). It is a good outsider's look at the sport that will leave you laughing out loud along the way.

Both books will help NASCAR novices and hard-cores alike.

There is one book that I have mixed emotions about - but will put on the list. It is, "Cheating: An Inside Look At the Bad Things Good NASCAR Winston Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed", by Tom Jensen. There are some good tales spun in the book and they're all true, but I find it lacks some context for the cheating. Leo Levine's, "Ford: The Dust and Glory" (in two volumes), recounts some of the same tales but wraps the cheating into a contextual framework. Just remember the old adage, "If you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough." ; -)