DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - There was a time when ladies attended the Daytona 500 wearing high heels, gloves, and hats more fit for a Kentucky Derby than a NASCAR race. It’s true. Just ask the woman who was at those races … and every one since.

Juanita Epton, who goes by the name “Lightnin’”, has worked in the ticket office at Daytona International Speedway since the very first day the track opened in 1959. Sunday will mark her 57th Daytona 500, and the latest stop on a journey that’s gone from the dirt tracks of Carolina to the high-sheen superspeedway of Daytona. At age 94, she’s one of the final connections to NASCAR’s earliest days, and she’s a reminder of how very much the sport, and the world around it, has changed over the last century.

“I love the people that I work with,” she says, “but I also love the customers. I have people who I’ve been waiting on for years and years.”

Lightnin’ got her nickname from her late husband Joe, who said you never knew when or where she might strike. It was Joe who brought her down here more than half a century ago, accompanying him as they dodged winters in North Carolina.

Shortly after World War II, Bill France, the man who would form NASCAR in the late 1940s, hired Joe to serve as an official scorer at dirt tracks around Charlotte. Joe earned a tidy $20 per race, about $275 in today’s dollars. Joe was also responsible for making payouts to the winners, and in an era when promoters often skipped out during the race with gate receipts in hand, Joe and his cash money were a welcome sight among drivers.

View photos NASCAR's Joe Epton, circa early 1960s. More

As NASCAR grew in popularity during the early 1950s, France decided to build a track that would challenge Indianapolis Motor Speedway for American superiority. France hired Joe, by now NASCAR’s official scorer, to work at his creation, and Joe brought along Lightnin’. Together, the Eptons watched the historic Daytona International Speedway take shape.

“A lot of people say, if you’ve seen one race track, you’ve seen them all. But if you haven’t seen Daytona, you haven’t seen every race track,” Lightnin’ says. “It was something special, watching them build this. Seeing the dirt piled high on each end for the turns. When you had a swamp to start with … it was like something out of a miracle to be rising out of a swamp.”

At that first race, the one where ladies showed up to the race in their Sunday finest, tickets started at $8 apiece, about $65 in today’s cash. (Today’s a comparative bargain; tickets start at $32 now.) There were only four grandstands, and only the first fifteen rows were even set up for bench seating. But Bill France, who lived every moment of every day with an eye toward promotion, understood racing’s growth potential. When he built those small grandstands, he poured the pilings strong and deep enough to support the much larger structures that would one day be built.

These days, Epton works year-round at the track, which hosts two NASCAR weekends plus a host of other motorsports events. She lives alone, just her and her Chihuahua named Lily, and she still drives herself to work in a new Chevy Equinox. (“People said I was crazy, buying a new car at 94.”) Her grandchild and great-grandchild live nearby. Her voice is as steady as ever, and while her gait is a little slow these days, her blue eyes will pierce you.

Story continues