GOTTA READ!

If you're a race fan, don't miss Kenny Schrader's new autobiography, GOTTA RACE! Written with veteran motorsports writer Joyce Standridge, GOTTA RACE! chronicles Schrader's career from May 30, 1971 -- the day after his 16th birthday, when he started (and won) his first race in a 1964 Chevy Impala -- to the present, with all the tall tales and inside stories you would expect from one of racing's busiest drivers.

Schrader has raced just about everything there is to race, from stock cars to midgets and sprints, Indy Cars and more. And along the way, he has remained to true to his motto that, "If you're not having fun, it's probably not worth doing." Four NASCAR Nextel Cup victories do not begin to sum-up the life of Kenny Schrader, one of the sport's last remaining true characters. While you'll find an exhaustive appendix of virtually every race Schrader has run in his career, the best stories in GOTTA RACE! are the ones from off the track; when the Budweiser flowed like water, and the practical jokes ran unchecked.

Schrader has more funny stories that Kasey Kahne has female admirers, and with the help of Standridge -- columnist for Dr. Dick Berggren's Speedway Illustrated magazine and (in my humble opinion) one of the most talented motosports writers ever to set pen to paper -- those stories come to life with amazing vibrance and clarity. Schrader and Standridge will join me on the show later this week to talk about the book and tell a few stories, some of them quite possibly true.

If you only read one book this year, make it GOTTA RACE! You can order your copy at www.coastal181.com, for just $23.95 plus $6 shipping and handling. And while you're there, pick up a copy of "Life Wide Open," the autobiography of legendary northeast Late Model driver "Dynamite" Dave Dion, written by yours truly.