Enough time has now passed that I can share an embarrassing story with you all.
Sir, You Can’t Come In Here Without Pants
↵In 2004, I showed up at Martinsville to cover just my third-ever Cup race. The two previous races I’d covered that season had cold weather, so I had worn jeans.
↵But the weather was forecast to be a pleasant spring day, so I showed up at Martinsville wearing shorts. I took some deep breaths of the warm air as I walked toward the infield entrance after a 3-hour drive from my home in eastern North Carolina and flashed my media credential to the security guard like I’d been doing it for years.
↵“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said, putting his hands up. “Where do you think you’re going?”
↵“The infield,” I replied. “To the media center.”
↵He pointed at my half-bare legs.
↵“Sir, you can’t come in here without pants,” he said sternly.
↵Being the rookie I was, I had no idea that was the rule. To gain access to the garage, you have to wear long pants, close-toed shoes and shirts that at least cover your shoulders.
↵Somehow, I had missed the memo on the pants part.
↵What to do? I couldn’t drive all the way back home. I couldn’t go back into all the race traffic to try and find a Wal-Mart. So I started trudging up and down souvenir row, laptop bag in hand, looking for someone selling long pants.
↵There were plenty of sweatpants for sale, but most were brightly colored and decorated with sponsor logos or car numbers. That would have drawn a lot of strange looks in the media center.
↵Fortunately, the Intimidator came through for me. The Dale Earnhardt legacy hauler offered a pair of black sweatpants with a small “3” logo on the upper left thigh.
↵I reluctantly handed over my cash – at least $30, though I can’t remember the exact amount – and put the pants on over my shorts, right there in the middle of all the fans.
↵
↵With my shirt untucked, I pulled one side of it down over the logo and pretended to scratch my leg. It worked! As long as I held my shirt down, no one could see that I was wearing a pair of Dale Earnhardt sweats.
↵This time, the security guard waved me through, and I arrived in the media center for a full day of race coverage.
↵I don’t think any of the other reporters noticed the logo, but they probably asked themselves why the new guy kept scratching his leg.
↵– Jeff Gluck
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