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When drivers aren't praying, they're fasting. Who knew they were an offshoot of the Franciscan monks? As I'm talking to Kyle Petty, the ponytailed shaman among NASCAR drivers, he goes into the refrigerator of his trailer for an energy bar and makes sure it has the right ratio of protein to carbohydrates. "In the trailer park where all the drivers live in their coaches, if you're out of skim milk or tuna, you know what door to knock on, because you know who's on what diet."
Mark Martin, the health freak who got other drivers to hire personal trainers to keep up with him, lifts weights at 5:45 every morning. "I used to drink too much, and I lived on cheeseburgers and French fries. But the new generation of race-car drivers is going to have to be athletic." On a hot day, a driver can start to fade at 400 miles. "Being in shape could make the difference not only between first or second place but between living and dying," Martin says.
If there is a traditionalist left in racing, it has to be Earnhardt, whose nickname is the Intimidator. I tell him Martin's pre-race meal is tuna with brown mustard on wheat bread. If Earnhardt says he eats the same thing, I'm going to cover golf. "My pre-race meal is steak and potatoes," Earnhardt says. "And when Mark's f______ tuna runs out on him at 400 miles, my steak will just be kicking in."
I'll give the story another week.
DIEHARD 500 Talladega, Ala.
It has not come to the attention of eastern Alabama that the Civil War ended. The track infield has so many Confederate flags flying that it looks like a Klan picnic. When NASCAR senior vice president Brian France tells potential sponsors that "our fans are much savvier than people give them credit for," it is to counter this very sight. NASCAR is apoplectic at the thought of racing's being labeled a racist sport, and it's desperate to escape an image of the race fan as a redneck with his gut hanging out.
Speaking of which:
"This is a white man's sport," a 38-year-old landscaper from Auburn, Ala., tells me. "Blacks have taken over all the other sports. Not that I have anything against the blacks."
"I do," says an 18-year-old friend who came to the racetrack in a converted bus and erected not one but two Confederate flags atop it.
"But how often do you hear about a white guy involved with drugs or something like Darryl Strawberry?" the landscaper goes on. O.K., we won't remind him about the Packers' Brett Favre--the celebrity starter for the Daytona 500 who had to beat a prescription-drug addiction before he beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.
NASCAR likens car racing to ice hockey in its appeal--mostly white, yes, but diversifying. NASCAR has a handful of black crew members and drivers, and one team is owned by basketball legend Julius Erving and former pro-football star Joe Washington. "Whether you're selling soft drinks, snack foods or a sport, all good marketers know it is important for every single person to want to buy their product," says France. "It is no different for us."