Sunday Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death! a Hot Lap Around America with NASCAR

NASCAR racing, once considered no more than a regional circuit of moonshiners pounding around low-country dirt tracks in a cloud of red dust and clich , has somehow become America's fastest-growing spectator sport. With 75 million ardent fans, it is a sports entertainment empire built at the very crossroads of pop culture, corporate commerce, and American mythology -- a platinum-plated, V-8 hero machine.

Smart, funny, and profane, Sunday Money is the kaleidoscopic account of a season on the NASCAR circuit. Driving 48,000 miles in a tiny motor home, Jeff MacGregor and his wife tracked the lives of superstar drivers like Junior Earnhardt and Tony Stewart, their crews, and their fans across the grinding reach of a 40-week season.

More than just a behind-the-scenes chronicle of America's loudest pastime, Sunday Money is the story of a hundred stories, of red states and blue, of splendid Rebels and Yankee hotshoes. It is a brilliant snapshot of American culture -- of race, religion, class, sex, money, and fame -- taken from the window of a moving car.

Jeff MacGregor, a special contributor for Sports Illustrated, has written for the New York Times, The New Yorker, and Esquire. He is a six-time National Magazine Award nominee and a multiple Pushcart Prize and O. Henry Prize nominee, and his work has been anthologized in The Best American Sports Writing.