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What: “Inside Sports NASCAR

Racing: The Ultimate Fan Guide,”

by Bill Fleischman and Al Pearce.

Publisher: Visible Ink Press

($19.95).

What’s a major league sport without an encyclopedia?

Baseball has one, football, basketball and hockey too. Now NASCAR, motor racing’s hottest series, has one. It combines historical sketches and anecdotes of stock car racing’s growth from the sandy beaches of Daytona to the spit and polish of today’s performers on superspeedways from one side of the country to the other.

Want to know who won the first Grand National race held in California--Marshall Teague at Carrell Speedway in 1951--or where Richard Petty, or any other NASCAR driver, won his first race? Or any of the 199 others Petty won?

You can learn why cars are made to use carburetor-restricter plates at Daytona and Talladega. Or why Kellogg’s promotional director says, “In a few years, we believe this sport will be pushing football as the most popular sport in America.”

It’s all there, in 563 pages of background, statistics and pictures, compiled and written by Bill Fleischman, a Philadelphia sports writer, and Al Pearce, a longtime reporter of NASCAR events for Autoweek. Included are the winners of every race from 1949 to 1971, and the complete results of every race since 1972.

Its arrival coincides with NASCAR’s 50th anniversary season.

“NASCAR racing has grown incredibly since I got into it about 40 years ago,” wrote Bobby Allison in a poignant foreword. “Everything is so much bigger and better, but racing’s still racing and competition is still competition. And, best of all, having fun doing what you love. . . .

“Everybody says racing has become such a big business that nobody can have fun anymore. Well, I don’t know about that. Don’t you think that little kid in the 24 car is having a ball right about now?”