Throughout this collection of brief essays, well-respected racecar owner, builder, and mechanic Will Cronkrite takes the reader back to the 1970s and early 80s, when one generation
of NASCAR Hall of Famers, such as Junior Johnson, Donnie Allison, Ralph Moody, and Bud Moore were the sport’s established superstars. During this same period, Mark Martin, Ricky Rudd, and Dale Earnhardt were beginning their illustrious careers, and Cronkrite worked with all three of them.
Cronkrite never portrays himself as someone to be pitied, having lost his young family several days before Christmas due to an auto accident. Yet his career is one of perseverance in
the face of adversity. Having competed in NASCAR, IHRA, USAC, and even semi-truck racing, Cronkrite is content—thankful for his opportunities to work with many talented drivers
and mechanics. Later in life, working at his shop in Rock Hill, South Carolina, he pursued restoration projects and metal working, and Cronkrite’s second career required the same stamina and attention to detail that served him well throughout his decades in motorsports. His metal work is recognized throughout the world.
Throughout I Was a NASCAR Redneck, Cronkrite reflects on his long days at the track and in the garage. He describes some of his adventurous, exhausting, (and sometimes comical)
cross-country hauls. Cronkrite also details his successes, trials, and tribulations in motorsports. Cronkrite believes in the value of hard-earned money as opposed to having everything just given to you. Through anecdotes, he passes on small lessons he learned on and off the racetrack. For instance, Cronkrite mentions how a single finger point from Donnie Allison conveyed the difference between the “book” approach and the practical approach of setting up a racecar.
Cronkrite, in one of his Earnhardt reflections, explains how the future “Intimidator” had his racing seat positioned in a manner that gave him an edge. Cronkrite’s ability to recount obscure details of how much “bite” he added or how many links he adjusted the suspension during races is reminiscent of older generations of racers, who kept handwritten notebooks and never used computers, lasers, or wind tunnels.
The spirit, grit, and engineering prowess from Cronkrite’s era lives on at the highest levels of NASCAR and trickles down to family-owned late model teams competing at the local
short track every week. Cronkrite reminds the reader that these tales are a recollection of his journeys with “salt-of-the-earth” men and women, some of which still compete in grassroots racing series today and can be found in small race shops with boarded up windows and surrounded by overgrown grass. And, today, at the lowest levels of motorsport, weekend warriors still fabricate their own jigs, tools, and measuring equipment, just as Cronkrite did in the 1970s. He constantly reminds us how today’s NASCAR Cup Series barely resembles the NASCAR Winston Cup Series of the 1970s—at the track, in the garage, and on the road.
Perhaps most importantly, Cronkrite, because he took the time to self-publish his stories, has contributed a deep dive to our understanding of what NASCAR was like through the
experiences of someone who had a cutting-edge mechanical mind and an understanding of how to go fast—despite never receiving the mainstream recognition he deserved
Beekwilder, Quinn and Dean, Daniel (2023) “Book Review: I Was A NASCAR Redneck: Recollections of the Transformation of a Yankee Farm Boy to a Southern Redneck in the Golden Era of NASCAR and Beyond.,” Journal of Motorsport Culture & History: Vol. 3: Iss. 1, Article 1. Available at: https://scholars.unh.edu/jmotorsportculturehistory/vol3/iss1/1
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About the Journal of Motorsports Culture & History
The Journal of Motorsport Culture & History aims to provide quality motorsport based academic research based on cultural or historical inquiries. Issues will be released once per year in the fall, starting in October of 2019. Manuscripts will be subject to a desk review for fit, and a double-blind peer review for quality and rigor. Student authors are encouraged to submit their research. The scope of JMCH includes, but is not limited to, motorsport research or interpretive essays within: sociology, cultural studies, communication studies, and history (books & newspapers, films, movies, radio & television, museum exhibits, resource guides).