Fan who has been to every Daytona 500 will see streak end this year

Jack Hege, believed to be the only person to have attended every Daytona 500, will see his streak end this year because of a broken left arm suffered in April that has not healed properly and required surgery in December.

Hege, who lives in Lexington, N.C., first went down to Daytona in 1958, witnessing the final race on the beach course. He enjoyed the experience so much that he returned the following year when the race moved to Daytona International Speedway and the first Daytona 500 was held (Lee Petty was declared the winner of that race a few days afterward when photographic evidence showed that he won instead of Johnny Beauchamp,  who was intially declared the winner).

Hege, who turns 84 on Feb. 9, just kept going back to Daytona after that, telling me three years ago that "I've never known any other home except Daytona.'' He even delayed knee surgery to attend last year's Daytona 500 to keep his streak alive.

Hege still has his ticket to the 1959 Daytona 500 he attended. He has a picture of Lee Petty's car after it saild through the guardrail and crashed outside the fence there in 1961 _ a devastating crash that all but ended Petty's driving career. Another prized possesion of Hege's is a photo he has with Tim Richmond at a sponsor annouoncement at a Daytona hotel in the 1980s. Two years ago, NASCAR honored Hege by seating him among the celebrities for the drivers meeting before the race and introducing him to the competitors in honor of his Daytona 500 streak. He was seated near Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman but it was meeting Bobby Allison and chatting with him that meant the most to Hege of that day.

Hege also was featured in the book "The Weekend Starts on Wednesday: True Strories of Remarkable NASCAR fans'' Here's a part of the book where he's mentioned (starts on page 19).

"I would sure love to go (this year),'' said Hege, who is a Jimmie Johnson fan. "It's something I look forward to. I don't have any family. NASCAR is my family.''

Hege was injured when he fell backward and tried to catch himself in April. He continued to suffer complications from the injury and had surgery in December. His arm is in a sling and still has screws in the bone.

While this streak will end, there's always next year. So can Hege get another streak started?

"You never know,'' he says, laughing. "I'm willing as long as anybody else will go.''

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