Rick Lemons’ interest in NASCAR came out of the number of people at his church, Fellowship Bible Church of Forney, TX, who love the sport. The more he listened to them talking about it, the more intrigued he became. And Texas Motor Speedway is just up the road from where he lives. NASCAR became the basis of a series of messages to his congregation, and that series became a book (see sidebar).

Cars, as well as four high school sports, became an early interest as a youth. “My first car was a 1964 Plymouth Fury like the one Richard Petty drove in NASCAR races. My brother passed on to me his 1965 Pontiac which looked more like a dragster. We did have drag races on some of the rural roads in our community.

“We never got caught but it wasn’t because the police didn’t try. My Pontiac was fast on take offs and had 140 on the speedometer. Let’s just say I saw the needle reach 140 many times,” he recalls.

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