The Race to Daytona

Florida's Daytona 500 stock car race is the equivalent of baseball's World Series or football's Super Bowl, and in stock car racing, no name looms larger than Petty. Kyle is the third generation of the Petty dynasty, following father "King" Richard and grandfather Lee. The Race to Daytona, written and narrated by veteran sports reporter Ray Gandolf, takes the viewer behind the scenes as Kyle and his team build, test, and fine tune what they hope will be a winning race car. These days, racers use computers at least as much as instinct, and they spare no efforts within the limits of rules and safety to shave an extra tenth of a second off their race time. Eventually, the big day arrives, Petty finishes a respectable fourteenth place, and the documentary ends with the team already thinking ahead to next year. As sidebars, the video also shows corporate sponsorship of the Daytona racers, and supplies some intriguing footage of early Daytona races. Though it might disappoint general viewers looking for another Days of Thunder, racing fans will appreciate this straightforward look at what it takes to win at Daytona. Recommended. Aud: P. (S. Rees)