A Stock Car Racing - On to Talladega

Every dream has a price. Is Jodell willing to pay?

Stock car racing sure has changed since the dirt track days. The speedways are bigger, and the stakes even higher. The country has changed, too. It seems like nothing is as simple as it used to be. Vietnam. Civil rights. Demonstrations in the streets.

But it's been a great ride for Jodell Lee. He is happily married with two great kids, and he's been able to make a pretty good living doing what he loves: racing stock cars. Jodell is on the verge of breaking into the ranks of the racing elite. Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, David Pearson, and Buddy Baker. Only one thing stands in his way: the new superspeedway at Talladega.

With its high banks and broad straightaways, Talladega will be the fastest racing facility in the world. It will take speeds of almost 200 mph just to qualify!

Jodell has to decide. Is the dream of being the best worth the risk?

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.