It's just past 7 a.m., the sun is high enough in the sky now that the rays are beaming down on the race track.

Parked in the infield near Turn 4, I climb into the cab of a bright yellow Chevrolet with nice cushioned leather seats. Zac Brown is playing on the radio and the smell of coffee lingers in the air.

“

My dad had a lawnmower with an old five-horse motor on it and we took that thing and put it on a go-kart, we put it on a bicycle, that same engine. And when the time [would] come to mow the grass, we'd put it back on the lawnmower.

”

-- DAN SALENBIEN

Behind me in the distance are rows and rows of campers, tents and trailers filled with sleeping NASCAR fans. Some could be sleeping off a big night of boozing in the infield. Rightfully so, as their Michigan homeboy Brad Keselowski won the Nationwide Series race the night before.

I'm sitting in the truck but I can't see through the condensation covering the windshield until Duane Barnes climbs in the driver's seat and turns on the wipers. Ah, the view of the track, so peaceful and quiet in the morning.

Barnes starts the engine with a smile and says, "Time to wake up the fans."

He fires the jet engine rigged to the back of the truck. I can no longer hear myself think, and Zac Brown's band is completely inaudible.

I'm off and riding shotgun inside a jet-dryer truck and it's way more impressive than I thought. Barnes wheels the machine so close to the wall to suck up the marbles and debris on the track that if I roll down my window I could touch Turn 1 with my middle finger.

And just when I thought it couldn't be more entertaining, we do it in reverse. Well, kind of.

On the frontstretch in front of the media center, Barnes puts the jet dryer in neutral and increases the power of the jet engine. Lightly holding the steering wheel, Barnes and I begin to travel backward. We are being pulled backward at about 20 mph by the jet engine! I'm laughing out loud, like I'm on a ride at an amusement park, and hoping and praying someone in the media center will see this.

Then going back to the top of the track, I honestly felt like I could slide right out of my passenger's seat down into the driver's seat. Which is funny, because Michigan's 18 degrees of banking is nothing compared to drying or cleaning Talladega or Daytona, where the banking tops 30 degrees.

"One time I slid off the track at Daytona, got into some oil and couldn't stop," Barnes said.

Suddenly, I'm eager to return to the media center -- but not before I thank Barnes graciously for the experience and education.

Rarely do NASCAR reporters have extra time to step away from the obvious headlines of the sport and unearth a gem of a story.

But, occasionally, we are able to go beyond pit road and meet someone who, in their own way, makes magic happen on the race track just as do the drivers.

For me at Michigan International Speedway, that person was Dan Salenbien, director of facilities at the track for the better part of the past 30 years. (Continued)