e-Book Fixin to Git: One Fan’s Love Affair with NASCAR’s Winston Cup download

by Jim Wright

ISBN: 0822332205
ISBN13: 978-0822332206
Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press Books; Revised ed. edition (July 2, 2003)
Pages: 320
Category: Automotive
Subategory: Building

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Rating: 4.4
Votes: 351
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Fixin to git As a NASCAR fan this book was captivating for me. I too have experienced some of the same things as the author which made the book come alive. A Customer said A GREAT book for any NASCAR race-fan!.

Fixin to git As a NASCAR fan this book was captivating for me. This book was a nice change from the typical "behind the scenes" books you usually find about Nascar. The author tells it like it is from a fan's point of view. He describes his trips to several different NASCAR events. His stories are amusing, and entertaining, and his information is accurate. I used this book to show a friend of mine why I go to so many races and why I am such a big.

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For years a "closeted" NASCAR fan, Professor Jim Wright took advantage of a. .

For years a "closeted" NASCAR fan, Professor Jim Wright took advantage of a sabbatical in 1999 to attend stock-car races at seven of the Winston Cuprs"s legendary venues: Daytona, Indianapolis, Darlington, Charlotte, Richmond, Atlanta, and Talladega. A fan's-eye view of auto racing's Winston Cup circuit and a sociological scan of the members of the NASCAR tribe, as dedicated and loyal a bunch as any Deadhead Читать весь отзыв. Instead, Wright offers his.

For years a "closeted" NASCAR fan, Professor Jim Wright took advantage of a sabbatical in 1999 to attend stock-car races .

For years a "closeted" NASCAR fan, Professor Jim Wright took advantage of a sabbatical in 1999 to attend stock-car races at seven of the Winston Cup's legendary venues: Daytona, Indianapolis, Darlington, Charlotte, Richmond, Atlanta, and Talladega. The "Fixin' to Git Road Tour" resulted in this book - not just a travelogue of Wright's year at the races, but a fan's valentine to the spectacle, the pageantry, and the subculture of Winston Cup Racing.

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Winston Cup races draw larger audiences-at the tracks and on television-than any other sport, and drivers like .

Winston Cup races draw larger audiences-at the tracks and on television-than any other sport, and drivers like Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin have become cultural icons whose endorsements command millions. Start by marking Fixin to Git: One Fan S Love Affair with NASCAR S Winston Cup as Want to Read: Want to Read savin. Fixin to Git: One Fan.

Winston Cup races draw larger audiences-at the tracks and on television-than any other sport. There are fan books aplenty, but not enough in the way of academic analysis. Now, that may not be what most people are looking for, but it was, at least in part, how the book was advertised. There is disappointingly little academic content here- although the tone has a good deal of pedantic pretentiousness.

Fixin’ to git. One Fan’s Love Affair with NASCAR’s Winston Cu. Wright is at his sociological best when addressing fan and driver demographics and the racism-or the perception of it-that NASCAR projects. One Fan’s Love Affair with NASCAR’s Winston Cup. by James Wright. He examines the nature of corporate involvement in the game, especially the ways fans relate to corporate muscle, taking umbrage at any diddling with race traditions (the renaming of the Charlotte Motor Speedway to Lowe’s, after the home-supply retailer, occasioned much hue and cry) that come in the wake of brand-name backing.

In the past twenty years, big-time stock-car racing has become America’s fastest growing spectator sport. Winston Cup races draw larger audiences—at the tracks and on television—than any other sport, and drivers like Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin have become cultural icons whose endorsements command millions. What accounts for NASCAR’s surging popularity?For years a “closeted” NASCAR fan, Professor Jim Wright took advantage of a sabbatical in 1999 to attend stock-car races at seven of the Winston Cup’s legendary venues: Daytona, Indianapolis, Darlington, Charlotte, Richmond, Atlanta, and Talladega. The “Fixin’ to Git Road Tour” resulted in this book—not just a travelogue of Wright’s year at the races, but a fan’s valentine to the spectacle, the pageantry, and the subculture of Winston Cup racing.Wright busts the myth that NASCAR is a Southern sport and takes on critics who claim that there’s nothing to racing but “drive fast, turn left,” revealing the skill, mental acuity, and physical stamina required by drivers and their crews. Mostly, though, he captures the experience of loyal NASCAR fans like himself, describing the drama in the grandstands—and in the bars, restaurants, parking lots, juke joints, motels, and campgrounds where race fans congregate. He conveys the rich, erotic sensory overload—the sights, the sounds, the smells, the feel—of weekends at the Winston Cup race tracks.

Comments:

I am hcv men

I read this book as research for a book I am working on, and was hoping to get a sociologist's take on NASCAR. There are fan books aplenty, but not enough in the way of academic analysis. Now, that may not be what most people are looking for, but it was, at least in part, how the book was advertised. There is disappointingly little academic content here-- although the tone has a good deal of pedantic pretentiousness. In fact, the tone had exactly two notes: every explanation is launched into with the windy pomp of a true college professor, and every defense of the sport declaimed with the defensive belligerence of a drunken redneck.

My other problem with the book is its clear fan bias. I have never seen (and wouldn't have thought it possible) a book about NASCAR that tries so incredibly hard to never mention Dale Earnhardt. Hey, not a Dale fan? Fine, lots of people weren't. But in his heyday, he and his image were responsible for HALF of the millions of dollars of souvenirs sold each year, with the other 42 drivers combined (including the author's favorite Jeff Gordon) left to fight over the remaining half. The most explosive growth in the sport came during Earnhardt's glory years (the mid-80s to mid-90s), both in television ratings and seating capacity at tracks, and approximately half the fans in the stands, in keeping with the souvenir sales figures, were wearing Earnhardt colors. Loved and loathed, he singlehandedly doubled the size of the sport, and more than doubled the money it took in (Earnhardt largely pioneered the whole diecast car and souvenir business, and was the first driver to license his image). When he died, it was not only the front page of the New York Times, it was a story around the world, and many newscasters at the time noted that most non-fans had only ever heard of two NASCAR drivers: Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt.

Yet Wright mentions Earnhardt only grudgingly and in passing, ignoring him whenever possible. His discussion of the sport's history (throughout the book) jumps from the 1960s and 70s directly to Gordon's emergence in 1995. He glosses over the exact timing of the sport's growth, and attributes it to a combination of corporate support and television coverage, without mentioning exactly who those television viewers were watching, or what phenomenon in the sport might have warranted the coverage in the first place. Again, he doesn't have to be an Earnhardt fan, but as an academic, he should know how intellectually dishonest it is to allow one's personal biases to so completely color the telling of a story. Like I said, until this book, I wouldn't have thought it possible to write a book about NASCAR while scarcely mentioning one of its most towering icons.

That said, if you want a heavily Gordon-friendly fan book about attending races, one that has at least some evidence of academic learning, this book will do. I did flag several pages for reference, and it is pretty well-written. However, for a truly rollicking, laugh-out-loud funny book about following the NASCAR tour, which makes no claims to academia but nevertheless is insightful, smart, and brilliantly-written, try Jeff MacGregor's outstanding _Sunday Money_. It laps Wright's book and puts it in the wall.

invasion

Whether you're a stock car fan or not, this is fascinating and hilarious. What a sport, what a history, what a culture. NASCAR is something different. Couldn't possibly have learned or enjoyed more.

Xar

As a NASCAR fan this book was captivating for me. I too have experienced some of the same things as the author which made the book come alive.

ladushka

It's been a while since I read this book, so I can't remember all the details. But what struck me about it was how hard the writer tried to refute the idea that NASCAR is essentially a Southern sport. Sorry. NASCAR is a Southern sport.

Most of the "sociological" angles of this book inevitably involve bashing the South, the Southern flag, and Southern people.

If you are a NASCAR fan but can't bear to admit to your friends lest they think you are a "white trash redneck" then this is the book for you!

The book isn't all bad... there is good exploration of the early years and for the most part everything he writes is factual. There are even some pretty good and funny pieces of trivia. But ultimately he is trying to rewrite history to make the sport look not so "redneck," which is of course code meaning not so "white."

Vital Beast

I had no knowledge or affinity towards NASCAR racing before reading this book. The author makes the subject interesting to those of us who don't know the drivers, the car racing teams, the tracks or anything else about NASCAR. It is a funny and at times hilarious read of one man's love with racing and the Winston Cup. While not at all "high browed", one begins to understand the sociological context of this fast growing sport. I recommend this book the fan, nonfan and the curious.

Abuseyourdna

I've read a lot of books on NASCAR, and this is the one I'd recommend to anyone to whom I wanted to communicate my love of the sport. Wright's perspective on NASCAR is unlike any other -
he is erudite and witty and down-to-earth and communicates a true connoisseur's perspective. Highly recommended.