Rolling Thunder Stock Car Racing: Inside Pass

"You ready, kid?"

Rob smiled. "I was ready when I crawled out of the rack this morning."

The guard has definitely changed. Talented but brash young stars like Rocket Rob wilder are flexing some muscle on the super speedways. The message? If you can't hand on to first place...step aside. But no way are the wily and track-trained veterans ready to concede defeat and drive off to greener pastures. No sire. These young lions have a fight on their hands.

In stock car racing, knowing how to win is not just tough talk and a pretty smile. It's not just the checkered flag either. Or the prize money and the endorsements. It's not the fame. Or the thousands of cheering fans chanting your name.

It's the thrill. And without the thrill, you might as well be dead.

Don Keith is an Alabama native and attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa where he received his degree in broadcast and film. He has won numerous awards from the Associated Press and United Press International for news writing and reporting, as well as Billboard Magazine's "Radio Personality of the Year" during his more than twenty years in broadcasting. His first novel, "The Forever Season," won the Alabama Library Association's "Fiction of the Year" award.

Keith lives in Indian Springs Village, Alabama, with his wife, Charlene, and a black cat named Hershey.