Most of the stories surrounding the 50th running of the Daytona 500 have focused on the classic finishes and the drivers who triumphed in the Great American Race. But for many years, one of the alluring aspects of the 500 was the fact that drivers from all sorts of backgrounds could participate, if they managed to either qualify on speed or race their way into the starting field through the twin qualifying races that are unique in NASCAR.

Since 1949, there have been more than 30 Georgians who have raced in the Daytona 500. Some are well-known, such as Dawsonville's Bill Elliott, who won the 500 in 1985 and 1987, and Chatsworth's Jody Ridley, who started the 500 six times with only one finish outside the top 10.

JOHNNY CRAWFORD / AJC (ENLARGE)

Ronnie Sanders (inside car) ran the 500 three times, and those were the only three Cup races he ever ran. He's grooming a grandson, Billy Fulson, to take over his ride, but he's still very much a racer.

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Others aren't as well-known. Here are six drivers from the greater Atlanta area who will watch Sunday's race knowing exactly how it feels to participate in NASCAR's showcase race.

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GERALD DUKE: RACED IN 1962

In the 1960 NASCAR season, College Park's Gerald Duke seemed poised to become one of the sport's big-name drivers. Wheeling a Thunderbird that he built, he posted seven top-10 finishes in 11 starts. His best run was a fourth in the inaugural World 600 at Charlotte.

"I had it made, but I didn't realize it," Duke said. "I should have started driving for someone else once I got my car up front."

Instead he returned to the circuit in 1962 with another self-prepared car, a brand-new Ford. But when he made his lone Daytona 500 appearance, he had have been better off with the old T-Bird.

"I came back with that '62 Ford and it was lousy — blowing engines, wouldn't handle," said Duke, who ran just two Cup races after that and now operates a transmission shop in College Park.

He was credited with 25th place in a 500 won by Fireball Roberts in a Pontiac.

"Daytona was a lot of fun," Duke said. "It was so fast we didn't know what to expect. Really, there was nothing to it, but we didn't know that to begin with.

"Ain't nothing like it."

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WILBUR RAKESTRAW: RACED IN 1959, 1960, 1961

Wilbur Rakestraw of Dallas ran the first three 500s, with a best finish of 22nd in the inaugural event. He remembers standing in the pits alongside Lee Petty, who won the first 500, and Glen Wood before the first-ever practice, as all three stared at the daunting 32-degree banking.

"Lee put his hands on his hips, and said, 'I don't know if I want to get up there or not,' " Rakestraw, now 79, recalled. "It looked like we'd be running inside a barrel, but once you got out there, it didn't feel that way."

Rakestraw drove an unheralded Ford owned by Dallas Ford dealer Joe Jones, but soon found that the previously unknown aerodynamic forces equalized things.

"When the leaders finally lapped us, we pulled in behind them and they couldn't get away from us," he said. "That's when we learned how to draft. There was a lot to learn, but it was so much fun."

Rakestraw ran 30 Cup races before the funds ran out, then went to work as a mechanic, eventually becoming service manager for a local grading company.

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GEORGE ALSOBROOK: RACED IN 1962

George Alsobrook, a retired mechanic from Hiram, made the field for the 500 in '62 despite racing on a shoestring budget.

His run in the big race turned out to be quite eventful.

"I blew an oil filter off coming off Turn 2 and spun around and around down the backstretch," he said.

But he wasn't done. His crew borrowed a filter from an engine on display in the pits and he rejoined the race.

"I fell in behind the leaders, and they pulled me down in one of those corners so fast it scared me to death," he said.

But the real fright was yet to come.

"I blew an engine going into [Turn] 3," he said. "It blew out the flywheel, everything went out the bottom.

"They got me out of the car and carried me to the infield hospital. My heart was about to jump out of my chest. That doctor said, 'Are you hurt anywhere?'

"I said, 'No, it just scared me to death.' "

Still, he was mighty proud of what he'd done.

"I went to Daytona with $800 in my pocket to race with," he said. "We did the best we could with what we had to do with."

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RONNIE SANDERS: RACED IN 1981, 1987, 1989

Ronnie Sanders, the veteran short tracker from Fayetteville, made only three Cup starts in his career, but all three were in the Daytona 500.

His best run was his first one, in 1981, when he finished seventh in his qualifier and 18th in the 500. Then he found out just how difficult Daytona can be.

"We'd been winning all these short-track races and thought 18th was terrible," he said. "In '82, we went back down and didn't make it. That's when we realized how good we had done in '81.

He made the race again in 1987, finishing 21st. His final 500 start, in 1989, happened in large part because of his last-lap heroics in his 125-mile qualifier.

"I passed Connie Saylor and another guy to get in," he said.

Sanders, who is still racing at age 62, said that even though he's won hundreds of short track features, his Daytona runs are some of his most proud moments.

"Every effort was under-funded, but I feel fortunate to have raced in the 500," he said.

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STEVE MOORE: RACED IN 1988

Steve Moore, a truck and equipment dealer in Carrollton, thought his NASCAR days were done when a chance encounter in a local restaurant in early 1988 led to his only 500 start.

"I hadn't run a Cup race in more than four years," Moore said. "I was eating lunch one day, and a local businessman, Ray Fulford, asked what it would take to get a car in the 500, which was just three weeks away.

"Long story short, I made a couple of phone calls and lined it up to drive Roger Hamby's car."

The car turned out to be surprisingly fast, and Moore made the field on his qualifying time despite spinning on his first attempt.

"We'd been down there so many years with our own car and had wrecks, blown tires, blown engines trying to make the field," said Moore, who finished 23rd. "There's a lot of pride in saying we ran it once."

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DAVID SOSEBEE: RACED IN 1987

There were two Dawsonville drivers in the 1987 Daytona 500, race winner Bill Elliott and his lifelong friend David Sosebee, who like Moore made the race in Roger Hamby's Chevrolet.

Elliott ran a record 210.364 miles per hour to win the pole. Sosebee was going well over 200 too, but he blew a tire on his qualifying lap. Still he was fast enough to start 40th.

Sosebee said the speeds that year, just before restrictor plates were placed on cars, were challenging.

"There was no spoiler rule, so it was whatever you could stand and how brave you were," he said.

Sosebee's bravery caught Buddy Baker's attention in practice — when the rookie swept by the Daytona ace going into a turn.

"When we came into the pits, Buddy came over and said, 'What were you doing?' " Sosebee said. "I said, 'I was passing you.'

"I thought I was going to get scolded, but instead he befriended me."