EARNHARDT AND GORDON MOTHERS AUTHOR COOKBOOK

CHARLOTTE, N.C. January 21, 2009: A new hard-cover cookbook, Pit Stop in a Southern Kitchen: Two Moms of Racing Legends Serve Up Stories and Recipes, is scheduled to be released the first week in February, just prior to the Daytona 500.

Authors are Martha Earnhardt and Carol Gordon Bickford. Martha is the widow of Ralph Earnhardt, mother of the late Dale Earnhardt and grandmother of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Carol is the mother of four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon and is married to John Bickford, who serves as Jeff’s business manager.

Martha and Carol plan signings at booksellers in select cities, and both also are slated to make appearances on several national cooking and talk shows. Jeff and Dale Jr. have written forewords in the 224-page book, which also features two 8-page inserts of color photographs of the authors and their families.

Martha is from North Carolina, and racing has been a mainstay in her life since she married Ralph, who was named one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers of all time. Her son Dale achieved seven NASCAR Cup Series championships, tied only with Richard Petty for most championships. Martha’s Grandson, Dale Jr., still races competitively against teammate Jeff Gordon.

Carol is from Northern California and racing has also prevailed in her life. When Jeff was four-years-old and racing BMX bikes, Carol determined that BMX was too dangerous, so she and John bought both Jeff and his sister Kimberly go- karts. Carol raced her children in their backyard and it was not long after that Jeff began racing competitively.

She and John moved their family to Indiana, the only state where Jeff could race professionally without a driver’s license at age 13. They moved to North Carolina in the early nineties when Jeff rose to the NASCAR ranks. Each recipe in the cookbook is designated by an “M” (for Martha) or a “C” (for Carol). In an excerpt, the two ladies say, “The recipes in this cookbook are from our childhood kitchens, our friends, our kids and our kids’ friends.” Martha’s recipes tend to be more Southern oriented while Carol’s lean more toward California cuisine.

Both, however, have traditional recipes. For instance, Carol’s best dish as far as Jeff is concerned is her lasagna. “Nobody makes lasagna like my mom,” Jeff said. “She claims it’s her secret ingredient. I wouldn’t know about that. What I can tell you is, it’s great.” (The secret ingredient, by the way, is revealed in the cookbook.)

Dale Jr. refers to Martha as Mamaw and says, “I don’t get to see Mamaw as often as I’d like because things are busy and I’m gone so much. But I know she’s always pulling for me on Sundays. So it’s cool that now I get to pull for her and see people come to appreciate her more when they read the stories in this book. I think she’s awesome, and I know you’ll think so too.”

The cookbook is published by Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, in Grand Rapids, Mich.