Details the history, great players, and famous moments of the Daytona 500 stock car race.

Audisee® eBooks with Audio combine professional narration and sentence highlighting to engage reluctant readers! Who won the first Daytona 500? What do teams do to prepare their cars for 500 miles of hard, high-speed racing? Who gave the Daytona 500 the nickname the "Great American Race"? Learn all about stock car racing's biggest event and the drivers and crew who make it possible in this fascinating, fact-filled book. You will join in the excitement of forty-three cars running nose-to-tail and side-by-side at almost 200 miles per hour. You'll also discover the rich history of stock car racing and find out why it's one of the most popular sports around.

Get your readers closer to the track with NASCAR Racing. From lug nuts to wind tunnels, this set explores the parts, personalities, and perils of stock car racing.

This exciting book provides an overview of the Daytona 500, from the event’s beginnings up to the present day. Short paragraphs of easy-to-read text are paired with plenty of colorful photos to make reading engaging and accessible.

Who won the first Daytona 500? Fans still debate whether it was midwestern champion Johnny Beauchamp, declared the victor at the finish line, or longtime NASCAR driver Lee Petty, declared the official winner a few days after the race. The Ghosts of NASCAR puts the controversial finish under a microscope. Author John Havick interviewed scores of people, analyzed film of the race, and pored over newspaper accounts of the event. He uses this information and his deep knowledge of the sport as it worked then to determine what probably happened. But he also tells a much bigger story: the story of how Johnny Beauchamp—and his Harlan, Iowa, compatriots, mechanic Dale Swanson and driver Tiny Lund—ended up in Florida driving in the 1959 Daytona race. The Ghosts of NASCAR details how the Harlan Boys turned to racing cars to have fun and to escape the limited opportunities for poor boys in rural southwestern Iowa. As auto racing became more popular and better organized in the 1950s, Swanson, Lund, and Beauchamp battled dozens of rivals and came to dominate the sport in the Midwest. By the later part of the decade, the three men were ready to take on the competition in the South’s growing NASCAR circuit. One of the top mechanics of the day, Swanson literally wrote the book on race cars at Chevrolet’s clandestine racing shop in Atlanta, Georgia, while Beauchamp and Lund proved themselves worthy competitors. It all came to a head on the brand-new Daytona track in 1959. The Harlan Boys’ long careers and midwestern racing in general have largely faded from memory. The Ghosts of NASCAR recaptures it all: how they negotiated the corners on dirt tracks and passed or spun out their opponents; how officials tore down cars after races to make sure they conformed to track rules; the mix of violence and camaraderie among fierce competitors; and the struggles to organize and regulate the sport. One of very few accounts of 1950s midwestern stock car racing, The Ghosts of NASCAR is told by a man who was there during the sport’s earliest days.

Learn about the thrilling finishes and unlikely stories behind the creation and growth of one of the most famous motorsports events in the world.

In this officially licensed and stunningly illustrated volume, get a thrilling, up-close-and-personal look at NASCAR’s mavericks and key moments from the dawn of the sport to present day. In every sport there are mavericks—trailblazers, risk-takers, hell-raisers, forward-thinkers—who drive the breakthroughs and advances that shape and define the sport. Written by longtime motorsports journalists H.A. Branham and Holly Cain, NASCAR Mavericks covers the NASCAR story in chronological order, focusing on key movers and shakers—the men and women key to the sport’s evolution—often related through first-hand stories. Racing great Tony Stewart’s foreword sets the scene. Accompanied by exceptional images sourced from NASCAR’s archives plus other top photographers, the profiles include such NASCAR legends as: Bill France Sr. and Bill France Jr. The Flock Brothers Lee and Richard Petty Smokey Yunick Janet Guthrie The Earnhardts Humpy Wheeler Tony Stewart Interspersed with the maverick profiles are sidebars highlighting legendary races, machines, and events like the first Daytona 500, Plymouth’s Hemi Superbird, record-setting pit stops, Jeff Gordon’s T-Rex car, and more. NASCAR Mavericks proves that racing always improves the breed!

There was one lap to go in the 2001 Daytona 500, NASCAR's most celebrated event. Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were running one-two. Junior's legendary dad, the driver race fans called "The Intimidator," was close behind in third, blocking anyone who might try to pass. Waltrip couldn't stop thinking about all the times he'd struggled to stay ahead -- and the 462 NASCAR Cup races he'd lost without a single win. He'd been a race-car driver all his adult life, following in the footsteps of his brother Darrell, a three-time NASCAR champion. And his losing streak was getting more painful every race. But this day, he knew, could be different. He was driving for Dale Earnhardt now, racing as a team with his close friend and mentor. Yet as his car roared toward the finish line, ending that losing streak once and for all, Waltrip had no clue that the greatest triumph of his life could get mired in terrible tragedy. This is the story of that fateful afternoon in Daytona, a day whose echoes are still heard today. But the story begins years earlier in a small town in Kentucky, with a boy who dreamed of racing cars, a boy who was determined to go from go-karts to the highest levels of NASCAR. For the first time ever, Michael Waltrip tells the full, revealing story of how he got to Daytona, what happened there, and the huge impact it had on so many in the racing world. He reveals for the first time how his own life changed as he dealt with guilt, faced his grief, and searched for the fortitude to climb into a race car again. It's an inspiring and powerful story, told with Michael's trademark humor, honesty, and irreverence. It's a story of family, fulfillment, and redemption -- and well-earned victory in the end.

A history of the Daytona 500 and NASCAR ranges from the first race in 1959 to the death of Dale Earnhardt in a collision during the 2001 race, offering a glimpse into the world of stock car racing and the lives of the racers.