Road-course ringer Pruett rhymes in children's books (cont'd)

The first line created for Twelve Little Race Cars reads: "Twelve race car drivers putting on their suits, fireproof underwear and fireproof boots. Starting up their engines, but one won't go. One little race car doesn't make the show."

Oh so fitting for today's competitive NASCAR arena.

The book, first adapted to Scott's career in open-wheel racing, progresses until one racecar is left and then the little race fans go to bed.

In 2001, the couple published Twelve More Little Race Cars to depict Scott's debut in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series. The illustrations and content are very specific to incidents that have all happened to the driver.

"Racing Through the Alphabet" relates each letter to something in racing.

In fact, Judy jokes about a particular red stock car in the book where "eleven little race cars coming fast to race, all drivers trying to set the pace. One bumps another: Hey! That was mean. One little race car won't take the green."

Recall Mexico City and last year's Nationwide race when Pruett was taken out by teammate Juan Montoya with eight laps to go, robbing the driver of his first NASCAR win.

Once fences were mended, Pruett said the two were able to put the incident behind them and have had a few laughs.

The Pruett family aims to infuse high-moral messages throughout their books as well as educational tools.

In 2005, Rookie Racer, a tribute to father and son relationships in racing, was published. It's an inspirational story about a son racing hard to the finish and gets a push from behind from his father to win the race.

"We saw driver Boris Said somewhere and he told us he reads Rookie Racer to his son and said the last page always makes him tear up, every time," Judy said.

In May, their most recent book Racing through the Alphabet was released as an educational tool for learning letters and inspired by the help of the couple's 8-year-old son Cameron.

Cameron was drawing wheels on the letter R one day and the family started right away coming up with letters of items found specifically in racing. N is for Nomex, O is for official and P is for pit stop, etc.

Scott put a lot of effort into making the book as close to racing action as possible, right down to the number of over-the-wall crew members allowed on pit road.

Most racing books he found at typical outlets didn't touch on the finer details of the industry.

"You know parents in racing are gone from their families so often. It's nice to grab these books with the kids at home so they can understand what their moms or dads do at work," said Pruett, whose books have sold about 80,000 copies to date and can be found online or at Target stores.

For Judy, the biggest reward is the thought of children everywhere reaching for her family's books right before bedtime.

"That's the most exciting part," she said, "knowing they are going to be on some kids' bookshelves and so many of those little night stands."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.