Rolling Thunder Stock Car Racing: White Lightning

First in the thrilling series that traces the history of stock car racing from East Tennessee’s dusty dirt tracks to today’s multi-million-dollar venues.

It’s the mid-1950s, and Elvis is King. Jodell Bob Lee has been raised up in his grandfather’s moonshine business. But the boy dreams of something much bigger than clawing out a living on a dirt farm and outrunning federal revenuers. He dreams of racing stock cars. It only takes a few races before Jodell is hooked, and before long he and his mechanic cousin, Joe Baker, and best friend, Bubba Baxter, are facing the like of Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett, and Lee Petty. His motto: always finish first, no matter what.

The explosion of stock car racing as the number one spectator sport in America roars to life in White Lightning, the pedal-to-the-metal story of Jodell Lee’s triumphant rise to fame and fortune.

“The Rolling Thunder novels do exactly what they promise to do: put the reader in the pits, behind the scenes, in the cockpit of a racecar, but they also give a compelling look at the personal side of big-time racing. Mostly, though, they are simply great stories about truly interesting people.” —Peter Golenbock, New York Times–bestselling author