Over the years I have read many different nonfiction sports
books from all sorts of sports: baseball, basketball, football, etc., but have
always found that books about NASCAR and its highly entertaining and
interesting history are the absolute most enjoyable. Mark Bechtel’s “He Crashed
Me So I Crashed Him Back” about the 1979 Daytona 500 and NASCAR premier Winston
Cup series season is right at the very top of that list, along with Ed Hinton’s
“Daytona: From the Birth of Speed to the Death of the Man in Black” and Joe
Menzer’s “The Wildest Ride.”
The 1979 NASCAR Winston Cup season may be the greatest
season in the 60-plus year history of the sport starting with the Daytona 500
race that helped to put the sport on the map as far as major sports go all the
way to the very last race of the season which saw one of the sports closest
all-time points finishes with a veteran and thought to be fading Richard Petty
edging out the young, brash and universally disliked (at least at the time)
Darrell Waltrip.
Bechtel’s book is incredibly well written with the author
mixing in a great knowledge of not only the sport, but the country at the time
in 1979 throwing in stuff about the struggles President Jimmy Carter faced at
the time with the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran and how a young college
basketball rivalry between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird would soon help to grow
the NBA in a similar way to NASCAR’s budding growth. With interesting story
after interesting story Bechtel’s book is a brisk read, even though it approaches
nearly 300 pages.
Bechtel’s book differs from the previously mentioned books
by Hinton and Menzer in that it focuses solely on one NASCAR season instead of
the sports beginnings and history. This allows for it to give even the most
hardcore NASCAR fans new facts and stories about the sport, whereas many NASCAR
books simply re-tell already known, but so fantastic you don’t really care
stories. It also allows for the most extensive and thrilling coverage of the
1979 Daytona 500, which is almost certainly the most important race in the
sport’s history. Not only was the Daytona 500 going to be the first full race
broadcast live on a major television network, but it also occurred on a day
when much of the country was snowed in with little more to do than watch
television. The race started much like every other one before it had, but by
the end the nation would see something that few could imagine: a duel at the
finish resulting in the two leaders taking themselves out and an all out brawl
post-race in the speedway’s infield.
“He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back” is truly a must-read
for any NASCAR fan and will tell you everything you need to know about the 1979
season and the likes of Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, David Pearson, Cale
Yarborough, Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison and a young, determined rookie by the
name of Dale Earnhardt. NASCAR’s past is the most interesting of any sport I’ve
ever read about because it’s filled with realistic and utterly entertaining
characters like those aforementioned above. This book will not only fill your
head with all the facts of the 1979 season, but will leave you smiling with
stories about some of the greatest auto racers to ever strap on a racing suit
and helmet.
