by Martha Leonard

Created on: March 17, 2007   Last Updated: November 24, 2008

It's the stuff of which stories are told and legends are made. A local boy outruns and out-maneuvers the Feds running moonshine out of the North Carolina mountains. This feat not only requires super driving skill, but cunning ways to soup up a car. When you're tired of fighting the law, take these talents and drive on a track. Race other drivers rather than the 'revenuers. At least that's what Junior Johnson did.

That's one big draw about NASCAR-just everyday, down-home boys that make it good. They wear overalls and baseball caps, talk with a drawl and will never win a speech contest. If they look like they just came off the farm or out of the garage, they probably did. But they can drive. Lordy, they can drive.

NASCAR has always been a sport for the regular guy. Starting at small, dusty tracks in cars built in the local garage and tested on back roads, NASCAR is the people's sport. And it's the people who support it. Older fans cheered Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, to name a few. The younger generation follows their sons and grandsons. It's a generational, family thing. Even the losers have the charisma of movie stars.

Then there is the specter of the wreck. What is it about human nature that enjoys watching a wreck? Unexplainable, but there-and NASCAR meets that need. Fortunately, with the safety equipment in place, most of the most spectacular, horrifying wrecks can still end up with the driver walking away. There are those others, though, that are still talked about around the bar-b-cue pit-the war wounds of NASCAR that took Earnhardt and young Petty. Unforgettable events unequaled in other sports.

No question about it. NASCAR is the man's, macho sport and by being that, it draws the women too. Yep, it belongs to the people. I may not be able to bat 300, or sink a long throw or run for a touchdown, but by gosh I can drive. And while I'm behind the wheel, I can dream...

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