Product: OSBS
PubDate: 07-05-2009 Zone: MET
Edition: ROP
Page: C_5
User: jdiehm
Orlando Sentinel
Time: 07-05-2009
FINAL
00:22
Color: K
SUNDAY, JULY 5, 2009
C5
Coke Zero 400
INFIELD VIEWS TEXT BY LUDMILLA LELIS, SENTINEL STAFF WRITER, PHOTOS BY STEPHEN DOWELL, SENTINEL STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Get your lanyards! Need a lanyard for your Speedway ticket? Renell Rich of Fort Lauderdale offered racing fans a unique set of homemade lanyards, which she displayed on a pole as she walked around the infield. She stitched about 100 of them with a variety of fabrics: a few red-whiteand-blue cords, a set using the flame design that now decorates Jeff Gordon’s car, and for your NASCAR fashionista, a set using the fabric familiar to fans of the Vera Bradley quilted cotton bags. Her personal favorite is the pink camouflage ones with the NASCAR logo, but the big seller were the Confederate flags. “It just takes five minutes to make them and I’ve sold about 20 of them,” Rich said.
Filling up the kiddie pool can be a grown-up chore Jasmine Giddens of Kirkland, Ga., was attending her first July race at Daytona but found out quickly how important it was to have a kiddie pool at their infield campsite. She and boyfriend Beau Turpin of Albany, Ga., hand-pumped the pool, but that was easy compared to the challenge of figuring out how to fill it up. “Setting up the pool took up the better part of the day,” Giddens said. “There aren’t many places to get water, so we had to find the water and then we had to figure out how to get it
in the pool.” The solution: driving their pickup truck to the hoses, filling up the pool while it sat inside the truck bed, and driving back to their campsite, very carefully and slowly. “But everyone was so helpful to us.” Relaxing in the pool, with beverage in hand, the couple were ready for their first Coke Zero 400.
Parents step up for Seminole dance team
Getting hosed not a bad thing It may have been the best infield spot at the Daytona International Speedway in the hot and humid hours Saturday before the Coke Zero 400. A set of hoses ran cold water for campers at Tent City, the infield section between Turns 3 and 4. The water was a lifesaver for Ray Barrientes, a NASCAR dad from West Palm Beach who’s had a reserved spot near Turn 4 for 9 years. He brought his 7-year-old daughter Maria for her first race Saturday and they made several trips to the hoses. “This is our eighth trip to the hose since 9 a.m.,” Barrientes said. “Every time there was a free hose, we stop by to get a little wet and keep cool.” The neighboring tent had a kiddie pool available, but the pool water gets warm in the midday sun. “We can use that pool but because this water is colder, it’s better,” he said.
Talk about parental devotion. A dozen volunteers for the Seminole High School Dazzlers dance team worked at the food and drink booths at the infield Fan Zone. Saturday’s shift started at 9:30 a.m, lasted through the afternoon race, the Brumos Porsche 250, and the late night end of the NASCAR race. And some of the parents had already worked long shifts on Thursday and Friday. But it’s a good fund-raiser, thanks to the 10 percent proceeds that the group gets. The proceeds help to fund trips for the team, which has won seven U.S. Dance championships. “You’re on your feet for 18 hours,” said Troy Stickle of Lake Mary, whose daughter, Krista, dances with the team. “It’s worth it because we do it for the girls.” Stickle and Sherette Salter, whose niece is dancer Krystle Rosario, at least could keep cooler than the parents grilling the sausages. They doled out the ice-cold water and Coke beverages for thirsty fans. “This feels really good when you’ve been here all day,” said Stickle as he dipped his hand into the melted ice to serve four water bottles.
Petty tweets up Daytona Beach cafe One Daytona Beach cafe has discovered how much it pays to Twitter, gaining a NASCAR driver as a new customer. The Daily Grind Coffee and Cafe in Daytona sends out daily tweets of its menu specials on its account @dailygrinddb, which prompted a hungry Kyle Petty to visit. Turns out that Petty uses his twitter account, @kylepetty, to look for local eateries at each city on the NASCAR circuit. Petty and his entourage enjoyed breakfast and then sent out a picture (http://twitpic.com/91j7t) and tweet, raving about the egg and cheese sandwiches and “the BEST cup of coffee in Daytona Beach area.”