A Little Bit Sideways

Spend a tumultuous week behind the scenes with Kenny Wallace and the Square D team as their independently funded team struggles to compete with the best of the best in the 1990s, the golden era of NASCAR racing.

As Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jarrett, and other legends fight for the championship, Kenny Wallace and the Square D team battle to qualify and stay relevant in an era when a spot in Sunday’s show was hotly contested and not guaranteed. Author Scott Huler spent months with the team to chronicle how stock car racing works through the window of the 1997 races at Martinsville and Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The result is a dramatic read that offers insight on the inner workings of a NASCAR team, from tire and gas strategy to engineering, car setup, and the fine points of a fabulous pit stop. Throughout the book, the author captures Wallace's fiery discourse and passionate personality, and takes the reader into all corners of NASCAR racing, from tech inspections and RVs in the infield to cocktail parties and banging fenders on the track. 

In A Little Bit Sideways, author Scott Huler goes over the pit wall to do for NASCAR what Roger Angell did for baseball, David Foster Wallace did for tennis, and Hunter S. Thompson did for the Kentucky Derby—capture the soul of the sport with gritty, honest reporting of its colorful characters and distinctive landscapes. 

Read an excerpt from A Little Bit Sideways.

“One writer may finally have captured the essence of stock-car racing, demystifying the grown-up groupie mentality that the roaring sport inspires.”
-- Michael Skube, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
 
“Most of the books currently being written about NASCAR are of the coffee-table variety, and most glorify the sport. Fine. There is a place for that. There also is a place for unfettered observation and independent analysis of a sport that is growing so fast that few have the time to understand why. A Raleigh writer named Scott Huler has broken new ground with A Little Bit Sideways…. Huler wrestles with the sport’s uniqueness better than most…. Huler also has a welcome attention to detail.”
-- Monte Dutton, Gaston Gazette
 
“A wonderful book, accurate and insightful, … beautifully crafted…. The book truly is terrific.”
--The Huntsville Times
 
“A fast-paced, 48-hours documentary-style look at the real world of racing…. Huler brings the business as well as the heart and soul of the NASCAR race team to life in fascinating detail and refreshing accuracy.”
-- Claire B. Lang, NASCAR Winston Cup Illustrated
 
“A great job of capturing the entire aspect of what NASCAR is like – from the fans, drivers, pit crews, the whole gamut.”
-- Bob Jenkins, ESPN

​“It may be the best presentation of racing I’ve come across.”
-- Bob Latford, The Inside Line
 
“[Huler’s] eye for detail – of the mechanical and of the human element – is moving and delightful.”
-- Gerald Martin, Racer Magazine
 
“Huler is a master at painting a picture with words. … This book should be required reading for every race fan. … A winner.”
-- Frontstretch.com