Seay and Hall regularly beat a driver named Bill France on the track, but France would have the last laugh, bringing order to the chaotic world of stock car racing by creating the sanctioning body which would eventually be known as NASCAR. Thompson tries to portray France as ruthless and domineering, and to some extent, he certainly was. (Woe to the NASCAR driver who raced in a non-NASCAR race, or spoke out against the organization's business practices.) But the reader cannot help thinking France did precisely what had to be done to make the sport what it is today.
Or, more accurately, what it was. Part of the appeal of stock car racing was that the race cars bore a pretty strong resemblance to Fords and Chevrolets you could buy straight from the showroom. The resemblance has diminished over the years, to say the least, and today's "Ford Fusion" not only looks almost nothing like the stock Fusion, it doesn't look much different from a NASCAR "Impala," "Charger" or (gulp) "Camry." And the single-car, independent team? Forgot about it. Even the legendary Richard Petty, who won 200 races, has more or less conceded that his team won't be able to survive on its own.
Some say NASCAR will not (or should not) survive, but Driving With the Devil left me convinced that it most certainly will, at least in some form. The obstacles facing today's car owners and drivers don't even come close to what the sport's pioneers voluntarily put up with. (Kurt and Kyle Busch, I'm sure, will not get into a violent argument over illegally produced whiskey anytime soon.) Who knows? If the "Detroit Three' withdraw from the sport, maybe NASCAR teams will use modified versions of cars purchased straight from the dealership. Or, as they were once known, "stock cars."
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