THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 7, 1994 TAG: 9408070250
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
More than three hours before the Brickyard 400, the lines were more than 20 deep outside the gift shops behind the Tower Terrace.
And those folks were just trying to get in the door.
That alone was enough to demonstrate the near-mania surrounding this inaugural stock-car race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Out in Gasoline Alley, the boulevards between the garage buildings were packed with people.
Ernie Irvan's crewmen, sheltered behind yellow ropes, were busy tuning their race engine after spending hours Friday night and Saturday morning tearing it down and then putting it back together.
Rising above the noise in the crowded garage was the incessant ``tweet-tweet-tweet'' of the whistles blown by the speedway's legion of yellow-shirted ``safety patrol'' guards, clearing the way for crewmen pushing cars and equipment.
``There's entirely too many people in the garage area,'' said Larry McReynolds, Irvan's crew chief. ``It's totally out of control. There's a lot of people in here who have no business in here. But I'll say this about the yellow shirts - they have been a pleasure. After all we heard about them, we haven't run across a single one that wasn't pleasant.''
Like all the NASCAR newcomers at Indy, McReynolds was amazed at how many guards there were.
``The traffic jam we found at 4:30 this morning was mostly yellow shirts going to work,'' he said.
In his trailer, Rick Mast was autographing a stack of programs, still going almost non-stop since winning the pole Thursday.
``Somebody told me there were 250 television crews here. And I said, `Well, I've been interviewed by every one of them. Twice,' '' he said.
Two hours before the race, the drivers' meeting featured a rare appearance by NASCAR president Bill France on the podium. He was joined by speedway president Tony George.
``Over the last few days, I've come to see that this is a neat thing,'' George said. ``This is the neatest thing, bar none, of this magnitude. Thank you all for being a part of this.''
Leave it to old A.J. Foyt, who started 40th in the 43-car field, to loosen the atmosphere.
``I have a question,'' he said. ``I heard a rumor we're going to invert the starting grid.''
About an hour later, all the drivers gathered at the bricks next to the start/finish line for a group photo - a tradition that goes back to the earliest Indianapolis 500s in the second decade of this century.
And not long after that it was time for another link to Indy's past, Mary Fendrich Hulman, the widow of longtime track owner Tony Hulman, to give the command to start engines. That cleared the way for a contest in which NASCAR's link to the future, 23-year-old Jeff Gordon, authored the first chapter in the history of a new race. by CNB