(EDITOR’S NOTE: Our friends over at The Kudzu let us publish this, as they intended to release it early last week but felt it would work better over here. Help us pay them back by checking out their page.)
The Daytona 500 took place this place this past weekend, with the annual pilgrimage of speed demons and their fans to the shores of Florida celebrating its 67th year.
The race used to be a Southern tradition; part Super Bowl, part Opening Day, part Joie Chitwood thrill show, simultaneously the biggest stock car race in the world and a reminder that warmer days were ahead. Men from hamlets like Hueytown, Timmonsville, Level Cross, and Spartanburg became larger than life figures by fighting it out in the Daytona sun each February.
These days, the drivers all tend to have more in common with each other than most fans. The power of the interweb (namely, the YouTube channel SMIFF TV. It’s a great catalog of old NASCAR races, particularly those with Satellite feeds. If the NASCAR Classics channel doesn’t have it, SMIFF likely does.) allows us to travel back in time, however, to days when the super stars of the sport seemed to be the folks next door who just happened to possess extraordinary mettle and resolve.
One of the best examples of the Everyman hero of the 1990s is Columbia, Tennessee’s Sterling Marlin.
Son of Nashville racing legend Coo Coo Marlin, Sterling paid his dues for years before winning his first race—the 1994 Daytona 500. He repeated the feat in 1995, and came into the 1996 edition as the odds on favorite.
CBS followed Sterling through his morning routine before the ‘96 running, and buddy, it is awesome. A reminder that, if you were a NASCAR fan in the 90s, your heroes likely had a good bit in common with you. There’s no pretense about Sterling Marlin. From all reports, he really was and is a simple ol’ country boy that loved to race and didn’t let being one of the stars of nascar’s golden era go to his head.
Case in point: his breakfast before the biggest race of the year and one of the biggest in the world? Krystal.
Yes, those square little tasties powered a Daytona 500 champion.
Watch and enjoy.
A few observations:
– The order was four Sunrisers and some chocolate doughnuts. Not too much, not too little. Just enough. This sounds amazing, with or without The Great American Race later that day. Also, who knew Krystal did doughnuts?
– Notice what he doesn’t have? A huge motorhome like drivers today. He’s staying at a hotel in town. Like the fans, he has to leave and enter the track. He’s also driving himself and his buddy to the race.
– I’ll be honest, before I saw this, I had no clue Krystal did breakfast. I am not only curious, I am tempted.
– I also would love to know…was this an impulse decision, or planned out? Is this what he had the year before? Is this a staple? A Hardee’s biscuit and cup of coffee have pushed me to another level on a cold morning—are Sunrisers a performance enhancer that I have been unaware of?
– I love Sterling’s good-humored, matter of fact nature. His extensive nighttime routine? He watched the replay of the Busch Grand National race then went to bed. No big to-do, just watching racing. And sleep.
– He also seems to be having a blast with the film crew; pulling a quick turn into the Daytona Beach Krystal and saying “I ain’t real good on turn signals!” Then chuckling.
– I cannot hammer home how cool and humble it is that the two-time defending Daytona 500 started his biggest work day taking himself through a drive-thru—like so many fans do before their job every day.
– The beauty and quiet of the world before dawn helps illuminate an Everyman’s quest for immortality. The late Tony Scott, director of Days of Thunder, would be proud.
– His excitement over the little things is neat to watch: the wonder of entering Daytona International Speedway’s tunnel into the facility, getting the same parking spot as the previous year. A simple breakfast. How the car feels after two weeks of practice. This is goodness caught on camera. Keep in mind, this is one of the hottest names of the time—and he’s still a fan of racing at heart.
– His pre-race lunch appears to be a bologna sandwich and an orange, glass-bottle Gatorade. You know, the same thing your dad ate between cutting the grass and an early season Jefferson-Pilot game.
-I can’t say for certain that Krystal’s breakfast was the key to Sterling’s back-to-back wins, but he was the only thing stopping him from challenging for a third-straight win was a blown motor part-way through the race.
And so you have it. A legendary figure with a legendary pre-race meal that exemplified the era. I’ve read Sterling hasn’t been in the best health the last few years, but I hope he knows that his kind of Everyman folk-hero is hall-of-fame worthy in our book, and sorely missed in Daytona today.
This “Great Moments in Sports History” was brought to you by an appreciation for what has been absent from NASCAR over the last two decades, namely personalities like Sterling.
The Message Pitch 