Think of it as a 180 mph race through racing history. To welcome NASCAR fans back to its airwaves in July 2007, ESPN will air a special, seven-hour programming extravaganza. The celebration kicks off in February with a five-month countdown of stock car racings 100 most significant moments. For diehard fans of the nations fastest growing sport, ESPN Ultimate NASCAR provides an irresistible sneak peak at the fireworks to comea turbo-charged, four-color, pedal-to-the-metal ride through sixty years of racetrack lore, featuring all of NASCARs royal familes: the Pettys, the Yarboroughs, the Allisons, the Earnhardts, and, of course, the Frances. From the sports birth in Daytona to the shocking crash that killed Dale Earnhardt, from the dirt track wizardry of Junior Johnson to the multi-billion dollar Nextel Cup showdowns of today, ESPN Ultimate NASCAR is a packed track of thrills, chills, spillsand occasional fistfightsall fueled by high octane photos and graphics.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The NBA according to The Sports Guy—now updated with fresh takes on LeBron, the Celtics, and more! Foreword by Malcom Gladwell • “The work of a true fan . . . it might just represent the next phase of sports commentary.”—The Atlantic Bill Simmons, the wildly opinionated and thoroughly entertaining basketball addict known to millions as ESPN’s The Sports Guy, has written the definitive book on the past, present, and future of the NBA. From the age-old question of who actually won the rivalry between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain to the one about which team was truly the best of all time, Simmons opens—and then closes, once and for all—every major pro basketball debate. Then he takes it further by completely reevaluating not only how NBA Hall of Fame inductees should be chosen but how the institution must be reshaped from the ground up, the result being the Pyramid: Simmons’s one-of-a-kind five-level shrine to the ninety-six greatest players in the history of pro basketball. And ultimately he takes fans to the heart of it all, as he uses a conversation with one NBA great to uncover that coveted thing: The Secret of Basketball. Comprehensive, authoritative, controversial, hilarious, and impossible to put down (even for Celtic-haters), The Book of Basketball offers every hardwood fan a courtside seat beside the game’s finest, funniest, and fiercest chronicler.

Each week of the racing season produces new excitement for the drivers and fans of NASCAR. Some weeks have produced the kind of heart-stopping moments that etch a race into the hearts and minds of fans. Those are the great races. The races featured in this book are stops along a time line that has spanned five decades of an American tradition. From the formative days on the hard-packed dirt tracks to the modern era of the superspeedway, every race has unfolded with its own unique story. NASCAR polled drivers, members of the media, and fans to select the twenty-five greatest NASCAR races. The resulting NASCAR Greatest Races is a panorama of the NASCAR experience. There are fabulous finishes, amazing comebacks, classic duels, and transforming milestones. Events such as the Rayson Memorial of 1948, NASCAR's first race, and the 1979 Daytona 500, the first NASCAR race shown live wire-to-wire on network television, helped shape NASCAR's history. The spotlight has fallen on individual drivers such as Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott, and Jeff Gordon, rivalries like that between Richard Petty and David Pearson, or photo finishes like the one that confirmed Lee Petty's victory in the inaugural Daytona 500 of 1959. NASCAR Greatest Races pairs more than one hundred full-color and black-and-white action-packed, historic shots with eyewitness accounts and personal reflections from the actors in this revved-up arena. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing begins its second half-century as the fastest growing major spectator sport in the United States. Nearly six million people attended NASCAR Winston Cup Series races in 1998 and more than 150 million watched the action on television. NASCAR also sanctions twelve other touring series as well as races at more than 130 tracks throughout the nation.

In the exclusive behind the scenes look, sports fans can unlock the fascinating history of the channel that changed the way people watch and interact with their favorite teams. It began, in 1979, as a mad idea of starting a cable channel to televise local sporting events throughout the state of Connecticut. Today, ESPN is arguably the most successful network in modern television history, spanning eight channels in the Unites States and around the world. But the inside story of its rise has never been fully told-until now. Drawing upon over 500 interviews with the greatest names in ESPN's history and an All-Star collection of some of the world's finest athletes, bestselling authors James Miller and Tom Shales take us behind the cameras. Now, in their own words, the men and women who made ESPN great reveal the secrets behind its success-as well as the many scandals, rivalries, off-screen battles and triumphs that have accompanied that ascent. From the unknown producers and business visionaries to the most famous faces on television, it's all here.

In addition to a new 8 page, full-color insert, this third edition of NASCAR For Dummies offers readers information on recent changes in technology such as the "Car of Tomorrow" and updates to the information that has made previous editions of NASCAR For Dummies a must-have guide for fans of this exciting sport.

Despite the many advances women have made since the internal combustion engine was invented, there is still one widely held belief that won’t seem to go away: that when it comes to cars, women should just leave it to the men. In Essential Car Care for Women, ESPN NASCAR pit reporter Jamie Little and Discovery Channel "Turbo Expert” Danielle McCormick team up to dispel this myth once and for all—and to offer the indispensable, hard-won advice women need to buy, sell, and care for their cars with confidence. With this handy guide, women will learn how to save themselves money by performing basic—but essential—maintenance tasks on their own. Little and McCormick explain what an alternator, regulator, distributor, and timing belt are; how to change a tire, recharge a flat battery, check the oil, and assess tire pressure; what to do when a car breaks down or when an accident occurs; how to buy a car without being taken advantage of; and more. Straightforward and easy to follow—and including simple step-by-step diagrams and pictures to help along the way—Essential Car Care for Women is the ultimate handbook to everything a woman should know about her set of wheels.

WOOOOOO! Are you ready for this, WWE Universe? For the first time ever, WWE's illustrious father-daughter duo "Nature Boy" Ric Flair and Charlotte come together to tell their legendary story. Ric Flair is a 16-time World Champion and two-time WWE Hall of Fame Inductee. His four-decades long career is recognized as one of the greatest of all time, but with success comes a price. Despite his effortless brilliance in front of the cameras, his life away from the cameras includes personal struggles, controversy and family tragedy. Through his bond with Charlotte, he's becoming the father he needs to be while rediscovering the legend he has always been. Charlotte grew up in the shadow of her famous father, "the dirtiest player in the game," but now she is poised to take the Flair name to new heights. As the inaugural WWE Women's Champion, Charlotte has had an impressive career, and she's just getting started. With the (dare we say it) flair of the "Nature Boy" running through her blood, Charlotte is destined for greatness. Find out how she embraced her heritage and battled her own challenges through her rise to the top of WWE. For these two Champions, sports entertainment is simply SECOND NATURE.

A New York Times bestseller, David Halberstam's The Breaks of the Game focuses on one grim season (1979-80) in the life of the Bill Walton-led Portland Trail Blazers, a team that only three years before had been NBA champions. More than six years after his death David Halberstam remains one of this country's most respected journalists and revered authorities on American life and history in the years since WWII. A Pulitzer Prize-winner for his groundbreaking reporting on the Vietnam War, Halberstam wrote more than 20 books, almost all of them bestsellers. His work has stood the test of time and has become the standard by which all journalists measure themselves. The tactile authenticity of Halberstam's knowledge of the basketball world is unrivaled. Yet he is writing here about far more than just basketball. This is a story about a place in our society where power, money, and talent collide and sometimes corrupt, a place where both national obsessions and naked greed are exposed. It's about the influence of big media, the fans and the hype they subsist on, the clash of ethics, the terrible physical demands of modern sports (from drugs to body size), the unreal salaries, the conflicts of race and class, and the consequences of sport converted into mass entertainment and athletes transformed into superstars -- all presented in a way that puts the reader in the room and on the court, and The Breaks of the Game in a league of its own.

Top NASCAR writer and Sirius NASCAR radio personality Jerry Bonkowski answers the questions that get fans most fired up Who was the greatest NASCAR driver ever? Are crashes good for NASCAR? How will Danica Patrick fare as a NASCAR driver? What are the best and worst NASCAR cities and racetracks? In Trading Paint, veteran NASCAR writer Jerry Bonkowski gets inside the sport's most contentious issues and gives you fuel for the debates that drive NASCAR lovers around the bend. So the next time you're arguing with your friends over whether NASCAR races should be shorter or whether double-file restarts are good for the sport, read Trading Paint and you'll be ready to argue—and win. Covers 101 NASCAR questions that get fans revved up the most—about rules, drivers, car design, money, and more Written by NASCAR expert Jerry Bonkowski, on-air personality on Sirius NASCAR Radio and former NASCAR and motorsports columnist/writer for USA Today, ESPN.COM and Yahoo! Sports Takes a comprehensive look at the sport—including the past, present, and the future of NASCAR—from both on and off the track Whether you're new to NASCAR or a longtime fan, this insider's guide will get you up to speed on controversies and concerns of your favorite sport.

A biography of the NASCAR driver who is the son of another winning racecar driver, Dale Earnhardt, Sr.