Friday, Feb. 15, 2002 | 10:08 a.m.
Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- After the way his car ran in Thursday's second Twin 125 qualifying race, Dave Marcis admitted to having second thoughts about retiring.
Marcis, 60, will compete in his record 33rd -- and final -- Daytona 500 on Sunday after making the race with an impressive seventh-place finish in the second qualifier at Daytona International Speedway.
"Well, I didn't want to retire in the first place," Marcis said, only half-jokingly.
Marcis, who will make his 882nd career NASCAR Winston Cup start on Sunday, announced last year that this Daytona 500 would be his last race.
"I'm tickled to death to be in my 33rd Daytona 500," Marcis said after climbing from his Chevrolet. "We had a good car -- I have to thank the Richard Childress organization (for providing a strong engine).
"I got shuffled back ... and we went right back up to the front. The car drove good the entire distance so I think on Sunday we're going to have a good race."
Marcis has fielded his own cars for much of his career and has struggled as an underfunded team. Although he has five wins, he has not tasted victory since 1982 and has only two top-10 finishes since 1990.
Still, he said, he resisted the temptation to quit until this year.
"I suppose that happens a lot of times, when you're struggling and you don't have any money and you don't know how you're going to make it the next year," he said. "But there are plenty of people in this sport that help each other, there are fans that help us, there's always sponsors that come along and they help you with different things.
"So many people have helped me, I'm kind of afraid to quit because I'm letting them down, too, so you've got to keep going."
Marcis will start 14th on Sunday and will retire with the second-most starts (882) in NASCAR history.
"The Daytona 500 is the only race in my opinion," Spencer said. "I don't have the words to describe how I feel right now."
Spencer got caught up in a wreck on lap 10 but was able to stay in the race. His Daytona 500 hopes were dashed 19 laps later when he had a tire blow out and he hit the wall in Turn 4.
"I'll probably hit the golf ball Sunday," Spencer said. "I won't watch the race."
Also failing to make the 43-car field were Greg Biffle, Buckshot Jones, Hut Stricklin, Rick Mast, Hermie Sadler, Norm Benning, Bobby Gerhart, Kirk Shelmerdine and Carl Long.
Robinson will be making her second Winston Cup start and will be the only female driver in this year's Daytona 500. She is the second female driver to have driven at Daytona, joining Janet Gutrie, who started the race twice, the last time in 1980.
Along with Supercuts, which is on board as primary sponsor for 21 races, the team has funding to run 25 races this season. Team owners Armando Fitz and Terry Bradshaw said they are "cautiously optimistic" they will get the additional sponsorship to compete in all 34 Busch Series events in 2002.
"It's a very hard sell -- especially since September 11," Bradshaw, an NFL Hall of Famer, said Thursday. "I was talking with Jeff Gordon in New Orleans at the Super Bowl and it took him, a four-time (Winston) Cup champion, over a year to put together sponsorship for the (Busch) team that he now owns."
The site includes a number of features, including information about spinal cord injury, links to spinal cord injury organizations, news relating to spinal cord research, an events calendar and a photo gallery.
"Families and friends of spinal cord injury patients will have fun with our newly designed site, but more importantly they will find information that we hope will make their lives easier," said Schmidt, a resident of Henderson who was paralyzed two years ago in an IRL testing accident.
NASCAR, for the second time this week, has made a rule change concerning the rear spoilers. Dodge teams will be allowed to take a quarter-inch off the height of their rear spoilers and Ford teams will be allowed to take yet another quarter-inch off, the second such change for Ford this week. Ford will run a 5 3/4-inch rear spoiler, Dodge and Chevrolet will be at 6 1/4 inches and Pontiac will remain at 6 1/2 inches.
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