Rolex a thrilling distraction for Winston Cup-ers
By Jim Huber, Turner Sports Interactive
January 29, 2002
9:15 AM EST (1415 GMT)
COMMENTARY
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Jim Huber
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It is, I would think, a bit like asking Kurt Warner to enter the Punt, Pass and Kick competition in the hours leading up to That Other Game.
Check out the lineup for this Saturday’s Rolex 24 that kicks off Speedweeks at Daytona and you’ll find far more familiar names than you might ever imagine: Gordon, Dallenbach, Petty, Stewart, Harvick. And you wonder…why?
Why, with the season opener and the greatest spectacle in stock car racing just ahead, take such a risk?
It’s nothing new, frankly. In recent years, many of the sport’s top stars have ventured into the Grand Am cockpits and onto the three-and-a-half-mile road course. The Earnhardts, in fact, finished fourth last year. Kyle Petty was a part of the seventh-place team.
Why?
Simple.
"We’re racers" is the way Petty puts it.
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Kyle Petty
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But more than that, they see this race as almost a way to relax, to get away from the enormity of the rest of their world, to get back to what they’ve always loved doing. It is difficult achieving that, to a large degree, in these days and times. They have created a monster and it’s closing in on them. They no longer have time for themselves, find more fans than mechanics in their garages, are under the glare of a much larger media scrutiny.
To a man, they are torn. Do they give up the millions? Of course not. Would they like to be racing door-to-door for a trophy and a couple hundred bucks, for expenses? In a heartbeat.
Kyle Petty put it all into a remarkable and telling perspective when asked why he ran the Rolex last year and will again this Saturday.
"I had a blast last year," he is quoted by the Daytona News Journal. "I told my father when I went home that it’s hard to believe Winston Cup racing used to be like that, where you just enjoyed going and having fun.
"There’s so much pressure in Winston Cup now -- the driving part is still enjoyable, but all the parts that go with it become a major headache.
"To come down here and just walk around and talk to people and other drivers with a hundred people wanting to talk to you…it’s pretty cool."
And so they get to return to racing’s roots, in a way. No mountain curves, no corn likker in the back, but pure fun, just the same. There can be no larger contrast in all of sports. From the Rolex to the 500 in 16 tension-packed days.
NOTE: Jim Huber's column appears every Tuesday on NASCAR.com and the opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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