Daytona 500 a family affair for pit road reporter Jamie Little

Pit road reporter Jamie Little of Las Vegas, left, is shown with husband Cody Selman, middle and brother-in-law Chase Selman at the Indianapolis 500. Cody and Chase Selman will serve as pit crew members on driver Sage Karam's car in this year's race. (Jamie Little)

She was having lunch with her family and it was raining hard outside, said Jamie Little, the NASCAR pit road reporter from Las Vegas. She wasn’t wearing her firesuit, but that didn’t preclude a fan from approaching to ask about her son Carter’s favorite driver.

“Kyle Busch.”

Hometown favorite?

Kinda, she said. “Carter is 4 years old, and he likes M&M’s, which is Kyle’s sponsor.”

The Daytona 500 is many things to many people. To Jamie Little, it is a family outing.

Her husband, Cody Selman, a crew member for driver Sage Karam at the Indianapolis 500, was along for the very fast ride, which meant that somebody else was making the sandwiches at the Jimmy John’s shop in Summerlin, one of two the couple own. Carter got to meet Richard Petty and Jeff Gordon and seemed intrigued by the King’s mustache. (Who isn’t?) Little Sierra, only 4 months old, earned rookie stripes at Disneyworld.

But by Wednesday, Jamie Little already was in a race-day groove. She said she was getting excited, as she always does for the big ones like the 500s at Daytona and Indianapolis.

“You can feel it. It’s definitely in the air,” she said.

She rattled off storylines for Sunday’s Great American Race: the start of Jimmie Johnson’s pursuit of a record eighth Cup Series championship; Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s return from post-concussion syndrome; Clint Bowyer’s debut as Tony Stewart’s replacement; the snug outfits of the Monster Energy girls; this complicated new points system and these confusing new race segments — three races within a race, a concept that for many NASCAR fans is harder to understand than former driver Ward Burton during a postrace interview.

“You don’t necessarily need to know how a watch works,” reigning Daytona 500 champion Denny Hamlin said when the changes were announced after Monster Energy replaced Sprint as Cup Series title sponsor. “You just need to know what time it is.”

Little said it’s time for fans to get on board, that NASCAR drivers already have. “The ones I have talked to, they are all 100 percent behind it,” she said.

But the big news of this day was that the Monster Energy girls would not be altering their form-fitting uniforms to appease race fans who had complained of their suggestiveness on Twitter.

“Racing and sexy girls have always gone hand in hand,” Jamie Little said.

ROAR OF WHAT ENGINES?

They must have had mufflers on those racing motors.

NASCAR drivers Daniel Suarez, Landon Cassill, Alex Bowman and Drew Herring got in and out of town so quietly for two days of wheel force testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Monday and Tuesday that it went virtually unreported. Which is probably how the wheel force testers wanted it.

“I’m not going to be racing here (in March), but it’s great to get laps and is always fun to drive these cars,” said Bowman, one of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s pinch hitters last season.

RIP: KV RACING

It wasn’t long ago I was talking to Jimmy Vasser, the former IndyCar ace, at Canyon Gate Country Club (where he lives) about his race team winning the Indianapolis 500 with Tony Kanaan behind the wheel.

That was in 2013.

On March 27, what remains of the KV Racing Technology team will be auctioned live and online by Key Auctioneers in Indianapolis. A new IndyCar team, Juncos Racing, has purchased most of the cool stuff, but the Dallara DW12 that Stefan Wilson drove in last year’s 100th Indianapolis 500 reportedly still is on the block.

WHITE FLAG

NASCAR needs to change the name of its Daytona 500 qualifying races, because when a lot of veteran auto racing fans hear Can-Am Duel, they think of Peter Revson and Denny Hulme in their powerful orange McLaren M8Fs battling Jackie Stewart in the L&M Lola at Mont-Tremblant or Watkins Glen or someplace like that.

Those were the real Can-Am duels.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.