Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Former champs remember what the race meant for them.
DAYTONA BEACH — Three-time Daytona 500 champion Bobby Allison (1978, 1982, 1988), 1972 champion A.J. Foyt and 1985 champion Bill Elliott all agreed winning at Daytona jump-started their careers.
“I had won some NASCAR races, but not here,” Allison said before the 60th Daytona 500 on Sunday. “It made a tremendous difference in the way people treated me. Sponsors jumped up for me and all those kinds of things. It was really good.”
Foyt could barely put the feeling of winning the 1972 Daytona 500 into words.
Elliott said he’d won a few races in 1984, but Daytona was special.
“I hadn’t done a lot to that point,” Elliott said.
“To come here and win at Daytona was kind of the pinnacle. We felt like, when we were racing… if you ran good, everything would take care of itself. You put yourself in a position to win, some things come together and you win a race.
“A fantastic feather in my cap for my career. Wouldn’t take anything in the world for it.”
Missing dog found
NASCAR can be a dogeat-dog competitive world, but it turns out there are pet lovers among the racing family.
There was a pre-race crisis about an hour before the Daytona 500 when driver Brad Keselowski’s family found their small dog was missing at the racetrack amid a crowd of more than 100,000 people.
Keselowski’s wife, Paige, tweeted a plea to help find the missing pooch: “We have lost our sweet Tess here at @DISupdates ! Please if you see her let us know. [prayer hands] thank you!”
The tweet went viral among the NASCAR community and was retweeted by Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s wife, Amy.
She added her own plea to find the lost dog: “Please keep your eyes out for the Keselowski’s sweet little dog! She’s lost at the track today!”
The story had a happy ending.
About 17 minutes after the first missing dog alert, Paige Keselowski tweeted, “She’s back !!!!! ” along with a photo of her and daughter Scarlett hugging Tess.
Earnhardt confirmed the news. “They found her. End search party & continue cold beer party,” she tweeted.
Fan stakes out key spot
It’s hard to miss Tammy Pickett.
The Kentucky native can usually be found camped outside the media center at the Daytona International Speedway armed with a handful of fluorescent yellow t-shirts and a Sharpie. Each shirt features a personalized message like ‘I [heart] Charlize Theron’ with a bright red heart in place of the word love.
“A.J. Foyt. A.J. sign my t-shirt,” she screamed out to the racing legend Sunday. Foyt took a few moments to sign the shirt and pose for a photograph.
This is the seventh year that Pickett has been here for the Daytona 500.
Each time, she brings a new batch of handmade tshirts with her geared for the particular celebrity, driver or athlete who will be on hand for the annual event.
She has over 400 shirts adorned with signatures from just about everybody including several presidents including Trump, Clinton and even Jimmy Carter. They are featured on the walls of his embroidery shop in Russell Springs.
A sellout again
For the third consecutive year the Daytona 500 was a sellout, speedway president Chip Wile announced.
“Once again, race fans have shown their loyalty to ‘The Great American Race’ and we thank them for that,” he said “Our fans recognize there is nothing like the experience of attending a Daytona 500 in the world’s only motorsports stadium.”
The speedway said that fans at the race came from every state in the nation. as well as from 49 different countries.