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The Scene Only the elite remain
Posted: Friday February 18, 2000 08:16 PM
By Ryan Smithson, CNNSI.com DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Dave Marcis may have failed to qualify for the Daytona 500, but the wily veteran was back at work on Friday morning. Marcis, who won't start in the Daytona 500 for the first time since 1968, was perched atop Dale Earnhardt’s hauler watching "The Intimidator" and 42 other drivers do what he wish he was doing -– practicing. Marcis shares information with Earnhardt’s owner, Richard Childress, and also serves as a test driver for IROC. Marcis’ hauler was still in its stall on Friday. All of the other teams that missed the race had long since moved out, and there is a noticeable difference in the amount of space in the garage. A.J. Foyt’s new team just barely made the show -– and the fiery owner was still smiling on Friday. The hot-tempered Texan is on crutches from recent leg surgery, but he still managed to stay ahead of reporters. Most of the other reporters camped out by Joe Gibbs’ haulers, which are right next to each other. Tony Stewart’s hauler is exceptionally easy to find -- it’s right on the corner by Dale Jarrett’s. The media has been hounding Stewart so bad that his PR man finally put a notice up on his hauler: "Attention media! Stewart will be available from 10:25 to 10:45!" Stewart, Bobby Labonte, Jarrett, Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin and Jeff Burton all share the same garage. Maybe NASCAR enjoys watching them get trampled by the media and the autograph hounds that roam freely through the garage. The Winston Cup drivers practiced for an hour early in the morning -- right when the autograph hounds arrived. One of the members of Rusty Wallace’s crew had to run through a gauntlet of fans just to get to his hauler for a new shock for Rusty’s car. Interestingly, only one driver in the "garage of stars" got out and helped his crew steer the car into the garage. Who was he? Jeff Gordon.
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