I ran into a gentleman the other day at Daytona International Speedway who had some great Grand Am sports car stories from his 25 years of employment with the track. The Rolex 24-Hour Endurance race is in its 46th year.

The one I found most interesting was to hear him tell of times before they ran the race under lights. Back in the day, the track lights were only used for NASCAR events, as the sports cars have headlights.

He told of how the cars' brakes would glow so hot heading into the road course section. In the darkness, infield spectators could see the brakes glowing yellow heading into the road course, then turning red and he said, even blue before the end of the infield road course.

Wow, that's crazy to me. He also explained to me how the pit crew members can change an axle in less than 12 minutes and the brake pads as well in record time. They have some special gloves that can handle the heat of the pads.

During the course of the race, teams are able to change virtually anything on the car except the engine and the chassis.

Maybe I'm just easily impressed, but that all sounds pretty amazing :)

Wish I could pull my car in for a quick service. Mind changing the oil too?