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A simple working man At age 60, Marcis still just doing his job
By Stephen Thomas, CNNSI.com TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Dave Marcis swung his Chevrolet behind the wall and brought it to a stop. He removed the steering wheel for the 879th time in his Winston Cup career and inched his way out of the car, seemingly none the worse for having spent the previous three hours turning laps at Talladega Superspeedway with kids, a good many less than half his age. Marcis' only apparent concession to his 60 years -- his gray hair was hiding beneath the odd combination of a wet washcloth and a baseball cap -- was certainly excusable given the sweltering heat that the old man had been subject to. But for that and his omnipresent wingtips and the issue of that gray hair, Marcis might well pass for any run-of-the-mill NASCAR driver ... or not. Age is not the only thing that distinguishes Marcis, though it's a component of his mystique: Sunday's Talladega 500 was the 29th of his career -- "I didn't run the first one, missed one other I believe," he says matter-of-factly -- and 61st race at the track. No, Marcis is special for the simple reason that he is the last of his kind, a veritable dinosaur.
Marcis is the public face of a shoestring operation, the driver for a team that has six full-time employees in an age when hundreds are the norm, the grandfatherly figure who will endeavor to drive the No. 71 in 10 to 12 races in 2001. "I have a budget around a million dollars," Marcis says when asked about the warm response he received from the fans. "I think the race fans understand where I come from. I represent the working man. People in the grandstands, probably 80 percent, represent the working man, so I'm their person. I like it, I'm a common person. I hunt, I fish, I work, I do what everybody else does. Same thing, no different." And though he races sparingly -- the Talladega 500 was the first race of his year -- fundamentally, he's no different than his better-known peers. Like them, he strives to be competitive and worries about keeping his sponsors happy. And like them, he is quick to find the positive even in his 38th-place finish. "I started getting a flat right there at the end," Marcis said. "I got into the wall, had to make that extra pit stop. Ain't a whole lot you can do, the car ran good, the car was fast, I don't know what we could do different. "I could pull up on the pack, I could pass people on the outside, I could run up there with the pack for long, long times, I just could never get to the point. I could run into somebody but I just couldn't flat pass 'em. I think one time I might got up to 10th or 12th, but then nobody came with me and I went low so I was screwed again. But it was a good day, not tore up, everybody used their head, nobody got hurt." While everyone around him is understandably inspired by him and what he continues to do -- face it, wouldn't you be psyched if your grandfather finished 38th at Talladega? -- Marcis remains remarkably unimpressed. "Hey it's what I chose to do for a living at an early age," he says. "It's been my living just like a man that chooses to work at General Motors or a wood factory or what have you. So I'm still workin'. I ain't made enough to retire yet."
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