HOT CORNER

A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here. One exception: No products will be endorsed.

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What: “Tony Stewart: High Octane in the Fast Lane”

Author: Associated Press staff writers.

Publisher: Sports Publishing L.L.C.

Price: $39.95

Since Tony Stewart won NASCAR’s Winston Cup championship last year, books, magazine articles and pamphlets on the colorful Indiana product have hit newsstands with regularity.

This latest one is a compilation of 28 stories written by Associated Press reporters about Stewart, his controversies and his accomplishments, from his first Winston Cup win at Richmond, Va., in 1999 to his Winston Cup championship ceremony last winter in New York. Its 166 pages are also liberally filled with color photographs from AP/Wide World Photos.

Accompanying the book is a 60-minute audio CD that includes actual race calls, reactions and Stewart interviews from the archives of motorsports journalist Mark Garrow. Included are Stewart’s reactions to winning three races as a rookie in 1999, his feelings about racing at the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, and his reactions after winning the Brickyard 400 pole at Indianapolis, only a few miles from his hometown of Rushville, Ind.

For Stewart buffs, it’s a keeper. For other NASCAR fans, it’s like reading old newspapers about races long gone. Actually, that’s what it is, a bunch of newspaper stories, one after another.

-- Shav Glick