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The scene You could feel the electricity at Daytona ... literally
Posted: Wednesday February 16, 2000 10:16 PM
By Ryan Smithson, CNNSI.com DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Geoffrey Bodine is sitting in the team hauler at Daytona International Speedway. He has just finished practicing for Thursday’s Twin 125s, but he has a lot more on his mind. Bodine is sweating under his Power Team driving suit. His team manager is telling him that they will cancel a scheduled afternoon Internet chat because NASCAR changed Wednesday’s practice times at the last minute. Bodine won the Daytona 500 in 1986. That was back when the engines were not restricted, just as the trucks will run in their season-opener on Friday. Bodine thinks his experience will help him win that Truck Series opener.
When push comes to shoveAround the time practice ends, ESPN’s cameras catch a brief glimpse of a post-practice scuffle involving Tony Stewart and Robby Gordon. Everyone is saying that the argument was minor, but it has been a fairly quiet week here, so the news was the subject of a lot of conversations around the various media centers. Word of a possible fight made people forget a major power outage that affected the garage during Busch qualifying. Reports came in that a power surge fried computers in one of the media centers. TV reporters lost power in the middle of interviews, and the speedway announcer, whose voice usually booms down like the voice of God, was eerily silent. Earlier, the speedway had tried to pump up the drivers (or maybe the crowd) by blaring old Scorpions songs. One transformer was throwing scary sparks onto the ground near the garage. That didn’t keep one idiot from hanging onto the chain-link fence in hopes of having 100,000 volts rush through his body.
Come gather round, peopleAs Busch teams were rushing to get their cars prepared for qualifying, the garage was standing room only as team members ranging from the jack man to the PR man stay close to the action. Despite the pressures of qualifying, Adam Petty was his usual self as he was standing around and laughing with his crew.
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