Rolling Thunder Stock Car Racing: Young Guns

The tracks are faster. The cars, too. But the hunger for speed-and the hunt for the checkered flag-hasn't changed.

Jodell Bob Lee has long since retired from driving, but the love of the sport is still like a fire in his belly. When he spots a talented young driver he can't help remembering his own glory days. It's as if he is thirty years younger and racing the dirt tracks of Tennessee all over again. Jodell has an idea: his old friend and former "wrench," Billy Winton, has put together a racing team, but so far wins have been hard to come by. Billy is looking for a driver who can do more than just chase the checkered flag. He needs a young gun who can tame the superspeedways and take the flag. A new partnership is born. But the Kid has a few obstacles in the way, namely Dale Earnhart, Jr., Adam Petty, Casey Atwood, and the other young guns who are clearly stock car racing's next wave of stars. It's a new generation of drivers, but the prize is the same: the checkered flag!

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.