DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A race fan is recovering after he was a victim of a hit and run after the Daytona 500. The driver left the man for dead and also left behind a big clue for police.

The stretch of Tomoka Farms Road where it happened would have been bumper to bumper traffic for miles in both directions on Sunday night. Still, Robert Faulkner lay in a pool of his own blood for about four hours and investigators wonder, with all the cars around, how no one saw him.

"He could have died. He could have been left there like an animal," said Sherrie Atkinson, the victim’s brother.

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She has a hard time believing there wasn't one good samaritian among the hundreds who no doubt passed her brother's body.

"He was walking back from the races [to his car parked at the flea market]. He heard a screech. That's all he remembers," Atkinson said.

When Faulkner woke up four hours later, he was bruised and cut. He needed 15 staples in his head. Someone had hit him and left him to die.

"We probably feel that it's alcohol related. That's why he didn't stick around," said Trooper Kim Miller, Florida Highway Patrol.

But the driver did leave something behind. In the grass, investigators found pieces of a mirror from a Ford F-150 truck, but that's it. So far, no witnesses have come forward and no one called 911.

Faulkner made it to his car and drove himself home when he came to. His sister said she can't believe how close she came to losing her brother because no one stopped to help. She said she knows Robert would have.

"He loves life. He lives each day as if it's going to be his last, and it almost was," she said.

Faulkner is in stable condition at Shands Hospital Jacksonville. If you have any information on the accident, please call the Florida Highway Patrol.