Jeff Gordon has taken a dominant position in the sport of NASCAR racing by rising farther and faster than anyone else before him. The rapidity and seeming ease of his remarkable ascent have made him one of the most avidly followed and actively reviled racers on the NASCAR circuit. There"s no denying the man can drive a car, but just who is this guy with the trendy shades and dazzling movie-star smile? We may never know. With the help of motorsports writer Bob Zeller, Gordon has put together a handsome coffee-table chronicle of his remarkable 1997 championship season that somehow avoids saying much of anything about himself. Jammed full of wonderful photography, the book will shine like a trophy on any race fan"s shelf, but the text is strewn with the wreckage of hollow platitudes such as, "I"ve had a lot of success, but I feel like I"m still down-to-earth." To be fair, Gordon is a racecar driver, not a writer, so it"s Zeller who should have thrown up the yellow flags before racing off to the printer. As it stands, the book is a remarkable mirror of Gordon"s own image--nice to look at, but running low on personality. --George Laney