In November, Tony Stewart became the first owner-driver to win the top NASCAR championship since Alan Kulwicki did it in 1992. So I decided it was time to read this book about the last owner-driver champion.

The author, Father Dale Grubba, knew Kulwicki and actually participated in his funeral. He did a reasonable job of portraying both strengths and faults, but his affection and admiration did come through.

In my opinion, the book was too long and contained almost excruciating detail regarding Kulwicki's early career. It could have used some stringent editing of the main text, allowing the reader to make use of the wealth of information in the appendix if desiring greater detail.

The writing was without major problems with grammr or sytax. But I found some portions a bit difficult to follow. I also found it awkward that the writer referred to himself in the third person when describing his role in Kulwicki's funeral.

Most of all -- and this probably cost at least a full star in my rating -- I detested the amount of speculation as to Kulwicki's thoughts, especially during the final moment of his life on a doomed airplane, when none of us can really know what he was thinking. Just the facts, Father, please. The nature and timing of Kulwicki's death -- in a plane crash just months after winning the championship -- are sad enough without embellishment. ( )