(7/3) Stoops & Spurrier take in a day at the races and notes

Oklahoma Sooner Notes and Articles

Stoops and Spurrier take a day in at the races: There are very few places Steve Spurrier can walk around Central Florida without instantly being recognized. But for a brief moment it happened Saturday night, when the former University of Florida football coach trolled around the garage area of the Daytona International Speedway. "I was mingling around fairly well, with nobody recognizing me -- until the first guy did," Spurrier said. "We took a couple of pictures, and then everybody started saying, 'Who's that over there?' " For Spurrier, who is preparing for his first season at South Carolina, Saturday's Pepsi 400 marked his first NASCAR race. But in terms of high-profile college football coaches, he was hardly alone. University of Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, a former defensive coordinator for the Gators, also was on hand. Stoops said he once attended the Daytona 500 about eight years ago. Both men attended the race at the invitation of Kerry Tharp, a former sports information director at South Carolina who now works for NASCAR. "I've looked forward to it and I'm tremendously impressed with what these drivers do, and I'm really impressed with the sport of NASCAR," Spurrier said. "I can see why it's maybe the biggest sport in the country now." Both coaches met Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Stoops got a chance to speak with Jimmie Johnson and his wife, Cheryl, who not only is from Oklahoma, but graduated from the University of Oklahoma. Spurrier also got to ride in a car that went around the track. Asked if he would be interested in getting behind the wheel and taking a stock car out for a spin, Stoops replied: "That would be awesome. I tell ya, I don't know that I'd trust myself, but I'd love to get in the passenger seat with those guys that know what they're doing." As far as parallels between football and racing, Stoops pointed out how the pit crew has to work in unison to get the driver back out on the track in the best-possible position. In other words, teamwork. "I would think the parallels are a little bit like golf," Spurrier said. "You can only have one winner, and how many cars are running tonight? Forty-three? Well, in golf they start out with 150 players and only one at the end of the week's the winner. "In football, we've got two teams. One's going to win. If it's an even game, you've got a 50 percent chance. This is a much tougher sport when you just have one winner out of so many competitors." (In part from Florida Today) Find more NASCAR Coverage at nascar.gnextinc.com

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