Once Around the Track

"McCrumb draws you close, makes you care." --Los Angeles Times

Racing fans have never seen anything like it--and they've seen plenty--the first all-women's team in stock-car racing history. Already a national sensation, the spotlight heats up when financial challenges force Team 86 to hire a male "wheel man."

And Badger Jenkins is a man all right--a sweet-faced Georgian who oozes aw-shucks charm off the track and unleashes blistering speed in competition. But the real Badger is a hard man to know. Just ask the women whose job it is to keep both car and driver in one piece.

From crew chief and team manager Tuggle to engine specialist Rosalind Manning, publicist Melanie Sark and diehard fan Taran Stiles, this asphalt sisterhood will power through a racing season of dizzying highs and terrifying lows to prove that women can do a man's job. And when the unthinkable happens, each will realize that they've been hurtling at breakneck speed toward a moment that will change them forever.

"McCrumb writes with a quiet fire. . .like every true storyteller, she has the Sight." --The New York Times Book Review

"There is no one quite like her among present-day writers. No one better, either." --The San Diego Union-Tribune

"McCrumb portrays people so well it makes your heart ache." --Atlanta Journal-Constitution