AUTO RACING Shelmerdine prepares with sweat, small staff

Dale Earnhardt's former crew chief now sits behind the wheel.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Most of the drivers in the Daytona 500 spent Friday morning relaxing in their million dollar motorhomes, signing autographs or basking in the adulation of sponsor appearances.
Not Kirk Shelmerdine.
The man who will start next to last Sunday in "The Great American Race" was doing what he does just about every other day: working and sweating over his No. 27 Chevrolet.
The 47-year-old Shelmerdine, best known as the crew chief who helped Dale Earnhardt to four of his seven championships, has a lot of work to do, considering he has only two full-time employees.
He hired a third person to help out at Daytona. All four of them -- dressed in nondescript T-shirts and jeans instead of the bright, pressed uniforms with sponsor logos that most Nextel Cup crews wear -- were scurrying around the car Friday, preparing for practice.
Big job
Shelmerdine, hardly looking like a glamorous race driver, grimaced and bent into the engine compartment of the black and yellow car -- reminiscent of the black No. 3s driven by Earnhardt.
"There's a lot to do," Shelmerdine said in a quiet voice. "It's a big job."
Nobody, not even Shelmerdine, gave him much chance of making the field for NASCAR's biggest race.
After last Saturday's time trials, he was 32nd on the speed chart and seventh among the drivers who had to either drive into the race in one of Thursday's 150-mile qualifying races or take one of the final four spots in the field on speed.
His place in the season opener wasn't assured until Bill Elliott, Kevin Lepage and Robby Gordon, all ahead of him on speed, raced their way into the 500 in the 150s.
Even then, Shelmerdine didn't think he had made it.
"I had my little list written on my hand in the car and was talking to the guys and kind of watching the field and I had it figured out who was doing what and who needed to finish where," he said. "And I got it wrong.
"I lost a car somewhere. I figured I was out of it. I pulled into the garage and thought it was the close-but-no-cigar-again thing. I was kind of feeling about as down as you could feel."
In the show
That's when a NASCAR official told him to get in line for post-race inspection -- meaning he had made the big show.
Shelmerdine said his own stubbornness and moments like that are what keeps him going.
"You know, as you go through long dry spells, you kind of forget what brings you here, what keeps you here," he said.
"The high spots are what does that. Winning championships and winning races and having the good runs and the things that are satisfactions that you can't buy, those are the things that are nice to get refreshed every once in a while and remember, 'Oh yeah, this is why we're here.' "
NASCAR chairman Brian France is one observer who loved seeing Shelmerdine overcome the odds.
"It's 'Hallelujah' for me," France said. "No. 1, he's put such an effort forward and has had some near misses in previous years. But that's exactly what NASCAR was built on. Somebody with ingenuity, determination and talent against tall odds."