Sign on I-4 gives NASCAR fans the cold shoulder

The electronic sign on the side of Interstate 4 in Florida is supposed to warn motorists of an upcoming exit. This weekend, someone reprogrammed it with a slightly different message: "NASCAR sucks. Go home."

Florida Department of Transportation officials said a prankster with the right kind of keyboard and a password changed the sign this weekend as hundreds of thousands of race fans poured into the area.

The sign — a 7-by-10-foot movable message board — was posted near the Saxon Boulevard exit by the eastbound lanes, DOT spokesman Steve Homan said. An employee noticed the unauthorized message late Saturday night. By Sunday morning, the sign was switched off.

Homan said employees checked to see whether the locked box that houses the sign's electronic guts was pried open. It turned out to be unlocked, but someone still needed the correct keyboard and password, which is available to highway contractors, consultants and DOT employees.

"It was clearly someone that was familiar with that operation," Homan said, though he said DOT would not try to find the culprit. "There are just people that are inclined to use our means of communicating, I guess." Orlando Sentinel