NASCAR's Wild Years

Book excerpt: Stock car racing in the 1960s featured intense behind the scenes battles between the factories, rules makers, track owners, promoters, and racing teams. Everyone was trying to keep up with the rapid year-to-year changes that brought more cubic inches, more horsepower, smoother shapes, and faster cars. The fans were the beneficiary as they were treated to incredible competition and incredible race cars. The '60s were a sensational era of stock car racing that will never be seen again. Factory engineers produced wild and powerful stock cars that raced in shootouts from Southern dirt and small ovals to bigger and bigger super-speedways. The racer's edge sought by each factory led one small team after another to pack up and pull out. This was the era of back-door racer support from General Motors, Ford's "Total Performance" agenda to win everything, and Chrysler's fantastic Hemi-powered stockers. Special racing engines and exotic prototypes with advanced concepts that never saw the light of day all added up to fantastic drama and incredible racing, all told in these pages.