George Keller knew he arrived that day in 1968 when he came to Dover and immediately walked out to the new track at Dover Downs.
“I came out to the back gate and I thought it was absolutely beautiful,” Keller said. “I remember saying to myself, ‘I have arrived,’ although I wasn’t sure where.”
He still gets that feeling twice a year when Dover International Speedway stages a weekend of NASCAR racing, culminating with the Sprint Cup race.
Keller will attend his 77th Dover race in NASCAR’s top series this Sunday, the Sprint Cup Best Buy 400.
It is the 77th such race the track has held since its debut in July 1969 with the Mason-Dixon 300, won by Richard Petty.
Keller, who is believed to be the only track worker to attend every NASCAR race at Dover, started as a track volunteer. He was one of the few. In fact, for that first race, NASCAR officials solicited fans from the stands to help out in various capacities.
They didn’t have much to choose from.
When the track opened, the seating capacity was 22,000, and it was about half-filled for that first race.
Keller, who’s 61 and retired from teaching, has served as a volunteer ever since. He helps out in the public relations department, directs the prerace parade, and serves as the unofficial track historian.
“He basically stood out because if there was anything that ever needed to be done, he would volunteer to do it,” said Denis McGlynn, the CEO of Dover Motorsports Inc. “It was guys like him who made the place go back in the day when the track was losing money.”
Now, the track is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and Keller has had a hand in that, too, helping with research, identifying old photos and answering questions about the way things were.
Back when Keller started, there wasn’t a “Monster Monument,” a 46-foot-tall structure with a life-sized car in the monster’s hand that was unveiled this month. There wasn’t a casino along the back straightaway, or a hotel overlooking the track, or a seating capacity of 140,000, or nearly the amount of attention on the drivers as there is now.
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