Unlike most restaurants, the sign outside of the Pool Room in downtown Dawsonville doesn’t display the daily specials. Instead, this sign, perched above an antique racecar, has a running count down to the beginning of the 2019 Daytona 500, which takes place on Feb. 17. The Pool Room has long been the central hub for Dawsonville racing fans and a small handful dropped by the diner on Sunday, Feb.11 to eat lunch and watch Chase Elliott as he attempted to win the pole for the third time in four years. After Elliott’s three-win season last year, fans are excited about the qualifying events leading up to the race in a way that they haven’t been in recent years.