Buster's Trip to Victory Lane

On my personal site, I share short thoughts about every book I read. This helps me reflect on what I read and evaluate trends across my book choices. When I was thinking about what I wanted to write about for this new site, doing something similar for children’s books immediately came to mind. Books are such an important way for kids to learn about the world and I’m frightened by the ever-growing pile of partisan book bans and challenges in the US. This is a coordinated effort to censor diverse books which, by way of simply existing, challenge the white, cisgender, heterosexual power structure in this country. I want us to counter this by championing books which promote the values we want our kids to develop. Real family values — ones that celebrate diversity, recognize not everyone looks like us, not every family looks the same, all people have worth, and empathy and emotional maturity are goals to strive for, not weaknesses.

Here I start the children’s books category of Raising Better. This is where I’ll highlight books we’ve found which connect with my mission for this site. I’m starting in an interesting place: auto racing.

Buster’s Trip to Victory Lane is the first children’s book by NASCAR’s longtime most-popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. My parents actually bought me this book before we were even expecting a child, but I hadn’t read it until Jacob was born. I didn’t have high expectations going in, but I was pleasantly surprised by the direction this book takes. Since NASCAR is historically very much a manly man’s kind of sport, I expected some kind of macho nonsense, but Dale delivered the exact opposite of that.

Buster is a race car entering his first race weekend with a new team. He just wants to do a good job for the team, but his anxiety (nervous rumblies in his undercarriage) keeps getting in the way. He makes some mistakes, but works through his anxiety and makes some great moves in the race and spoilers ends up in victory lane, but not for himself. He wasn’t going to win the race himself, but helps hold off the competition so his teammate can win. He goes to victory lane to celebrate her victory. He celebrates a great team result even though he couldn’t win himself.

I loved this book simply because it went against so much of what I expected from a NASCAR kid’s book. Some things are simple but seemingly intentional choices. For example, the flagger and several of the racers are female. There are nowhere near as many women in racing as there should be, and many who do work in the industry are working in more typically female roles like PR and social media. It was a small but welcome touch to include women in the competition side in the book. Buster recognizing his anxiety was hurting his performance and confiding in his team for help was a good lesson. Where many athletes are expected to bottle up their emotions, this book recognizes that it’s totally normal to feel anxiety in high-pressure situations and it’s important to lean on your support system when you need it.

Finally, I love the little twist that Buster doesn’t win the race. I expected a happy cute little race car wins the race book, but I think it’s more meaningful because he doesn’t. Instead of seeing Buster go all out to win for himself, he does what’s best for his team. He looks at the situation, sees how he can support his team, executes it, and is proud of himself for doing so. I think it’s important to show kids that their contribution to the greater community is valuable in its own right, not just based on their individual outcome. Racing is superficially an individual sport, but there are so many people behind the driver to make successes happen. I like that this book highlights the value in being one of those support people rather than the face on the cover.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, because Dale has been very public about his personal struggles and was one of the first drivers in NASCAR to speak openly concussions were affecting his life. In many ways he broke the mold of the macho racecar driver, despite that being one of the things his father was known for. Buster’s Trip to Victory Lane seems to reflect its author, and I’m happy to see it highlight a more open, emotionally available version of motorsports.