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.

What: Sporting News Stock Car Racing Preview.

Where: On sale at newsstands, $5.59.

If you didn’t get enough of NASCAR and the Winston Cup in its 50th anniversary year in 1998, this will get you going for 1999. The season starts in less than a month with the Daytona 500 on Valentine’s Day.

The Stock Car Racing Preview is just what the name implies, a catalog of what to look for (can anybody beat Jeff Gordon?), who to look for (profiles of the top 53 drivers), where to go to see a race (analyses of all Winston Cup tracks, even where to sleep and eat) and schedules for major stock car series.

An added bonus is stock car historian Gene Granger’s list of memorable moments of the 50 years, starting with Feb. 21, 1948, the day Big Bill France and pals incorporated NASCAR. Not the greatest, but the most memorable.

Then there was the day in 1954 when Al Keller won in a Jaguar, or the time in 1953 when Tim Flock drove with a monkey named Jocko Flocko outfitted in a racing suit and goggles alongside him, or the day in 1959 when Ned Jarrett bought a car for $2,000 with a check--without any funds in the bank--and then won a race on Saturday night and another on Sunday to cover the check.

And if Jeff Gordon is your favorite driver, there is a fawning piece about the reigning champion. It’s so saccharine, you won’t need any sugar in your coffee.