The Earnhardts, who will be joined by teammates Andy Pilgrim and Kelly Collins in their factory-backed Corvette, are new to this kind of racing. But they're not playing around. They tested late last year on the Sebring course in Florida and then participated in tests at Daytona early this month. This is serious business. Driving in those cars is like doing aerobics for two hours.
Drivers race in shifts.
Jones once drove 11 of the 24 hours when one of his teammates got sick, including one stint of 3 hours straight. You have to shift and hit your braking points as you go into the turns. You have the traffic to deal with. My car would run 200 mph down the straightaways and you run up on cars doing 140. They're braking at different points, and at night your depth perception gets tough.