By Gary Gastelu | Fox News
President Trump is taking part in this year’s Daytona 500.
Trump hosted NASCAR Champion Martin Truex Jr.’s team at The White House. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Not as a driver, but as grand marshal, which means he gets to give the “start your engines” command to the 43 entrants in The Great American Race.
It’ll mark the first time a president, sitting or former, has ever held the role. The only other time a sitting president attended the race was when George Bush came in 2004, the year Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his first 500.
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Earnhardt was grand marshal in 2018 and will be on the stand this Sunday to wave the green flag as honorary starter.
Trump was endorsed in 2016 by former NASCAR CEO Brian France Jr., has hosted series champions Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr. at The White House and gave NASCAR team owner Roger Penske the Presidential Medal of Freedom last year.
And while the president won’t be getting on the track, his name will. Just not on Sunday.
(Mike Harmon Racing)
Joe Nemechek will be driving a Mike Harmon Racing car in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday sponsored by the Patriots PAC of America that will have Trump/Pence 2020 logos on it.
Gary Gastelu is FoxNews.com’s Automotive Editor.
