Marcis

	Trickle

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Mark Martin won Friday's IROC season-opener at Daytona International Speedway, but he's not the only veteran driver associated with the series.

Winston Cup veterans and old Wisconsin racing buddies Dave Marcis and Dick Trickle -- along with Jim Sauter -- serve as IROC testers and instructors. They help to prepare the cars for the race and the open-wheel drivers for the cars.

Though this time around, their jobs were pretty easy.

"(It's been) really good," said Trickle, now 61, who won the Winston Cup Rookie of the Year award in 1989 at age 48. "We unloaded the cars -- they were really good off the truck, fortunately. We had a good couple days of practice in last week. We got some rain the last couple of days of practice here, so it's a good thing the cars were good right off."

And there were few complaints to be heard following the race on Friday.

"The cars are great," Trickle said a day before the race. "Everybody's happy. ... From the test drivers the input is good. And the drivers that come and practice say they like the cars, so the IROC guys just do a tremendous job."

During his latter Winston Cup days, Trickle, who with Marcis is a short-track racing legend, often received as much attention for his memorable name as he did for his driving accomplishments. But the veteran has won a Winston Open, scored several third-place finishes in Cup competition, notched wins in the Busch Series and won poles for both Busch and Cup events.

And while he hasn't been a regular on the Cup circuit for several years, Trickle is certainly open to giving Winston Cup another shot -- but it would need to be the right shot.

"I don't have a steady Cup ride or Busch ride, either one," said Trickle. "Now and then I'm getting calls from some of the teams to maybe run a race or test for them. If it looks like it's competitive or somebody that can at least get in the show and run mediocre, I'd probably take it. I've had a couple of calls where I know they wouldn't get up to speed. I don't need to do that right now.

"I still want to do it. I still have the desire. But at the same time, without the sponsor or without the right call, I won't be doing it. I feel I'll probably run a half-dozen short tracks around the country this year. Somebody's going to get wise and call me up over here sometime."

For Dave Marcis, returning to Daytona is a bit bittersweet.

	Trickle, Sauter and Marcis lend their experience to the IROC series.

One of the stories of the 2002 Daytona 500 was Marcis' last attempt to make the race. He had announced during the 2001 season that he would wrap up his long Winston Cup career by making one final run at qualifying for the Great American Race.

And Marcis did qualify via a good run in his 125 qualifying race, but was knocked out of Sunday's main event early with mechanical problems.

One year later, how does it feel for Marcis not to be focused on Sunday's race?

"I wish I was trying to get in the race," said Marcis, 61. "But I'm down here testing IROC cars and stuff, so we've been here for the past week and things are going pretty good with the IROC cars. But I miss being here trying to get qualified for the Daytona 500, that's for sure."

Marcis has remained involved in the sport, running several races as a car owner last season. And while money and sponsorship is hard to come by, don't be surprised to see Marcis at the track throughout the 2003 Winston Cup season.

"I plan on trying to (run a car) some throughout the course of the year. I'm building two new cars in the shop right now. Two new 2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlos. So I do plan on doing something at some point in time during the year."

Marcis has five Winston Cup victories to his credit, the most recent coming in 1982 while running his own team - something he did for a majority of his career. And while he has no plans to get back in a Cup car, Marcis absolutely does not rule out getting back behind the wheel to mix it up again.

"All I said when I retired is that I retired from Winston Cup, so I left the door open for pickup trucks or short tracks or Busch or what have you," said Marcis. "Yeah, I would still like to be driving. I just like the sport. It's hard to just step away like I did, but it was also becoming difficult to make ends meet and make the races and get qualified, too. But I miss it - I wish I still was driving."

But is he really done with Winston Cup as a driver? Would Marcis pull an about-face and gear up and put the wing tips on if a Cup owner came calling in need for a replacement driver for a race?

"Yeah. I'm ready to go."