WEBSITE Jayski fills need for race fans

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
PHILADELPHIA -- Todd Holbert follows a daily routine that many people in Winston Cup practice.
"The first thing I do [at work] every morning is click on Jayski to see if I still have a job," said Holbert, an engineer for Bill Davis Racing.
Jayski is jayski.com, a must-read for NASCAR fans, drivers, crew members, owners and sponsors. The Web site gets about 150,000 hits daily as people check on news, rumors, team information, driver appearances, publication announcements and fan clubs. In other words, everything you want to know about NASCAR.
A NASCAR fanatic might be expected to be a Southerner. Jay Adamczyk is from the South -- South Jersey. He lives near Atlantic City and is a huge Philadelphia pro sports fan. The Eagles, Flyers, Phillies and Sixers logos are on his Web site.
Adamczyk, 41, also is a longtime racing fan.
"My dad took me to Pocono [Raceway] back when the Indy cars were the series," he recalled. "I met Mark Donohue and Roger Penske at Split Rock Lodge and was hooked. I sat in Mario Andretti's car."
Adamczyk launched his Web site in 1996, when NASCAR was booming nationally, because he couldn't find much NASCAR information on the Internet.
Three years later, Adamczyk left his job as a computer programmer to devote all his time to jayski.com. He says he works 12 to 15 hours a day on the site. Adamczyk said the only money he earns is from the advertising on the site.
"[The income] is a tad above what I was getting as a programmer," he said, "but I don't get any vacation or health benefits. It's definitely weird getting one paycheck a month."
Adamczyk doesn't write for his Web site. He primarily offers links to newspaper, magazine and online stories about racing.
He also has developed excellent sources in racing.
Feedback
"They came to me," he said. "If I post something and it's not right, someone from the team will e-mail me and say, 'This is the right [news].' "
Until a few years ago, Adamczyk was considered a man of mystery. It was thought that he preferred not to have his photo used with stories about him. Then a couple of television networks showed his face in features about him.
"I'm not a noticeable person," he said. "I don't turn heads. It works both ways. Chicks don't notice me, either."
Maybe women will notice him in North Carolina. He's moving in a few months to Mooresville, where many Winston Cup teams are headquartered.