Following The death of Jimmy Carter at 100 years old, the the former president’s NASCAR connections have been mentioned in many reflections.
President Carter’s love for NASCAR was genuine and was not just a campaign opportunity. As a young man, he worked at the ticket office at Atlanta Motor Speedway in his native Georgia. As governor (1971-75) and presidential candidate (in 1976), he returned to the track.
Several years after welcoming NASCAR drivers in his Atlanta governor’s mansion, he hosted a cast of NASCAR racing stars at the White House in 1978, although Middle East peace talks at Camp David made him an absentee host.
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But just like Ronald Reagan ended Carter’s tenure as the 39th president, the politically historic “Reagan Revolution” apparently ended the cozy relationship between NASCAR and Carter’s Democratic Party – those relationships included the former governor’s longtime friendship of Alabama, George Wallace, with NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. (Wallace was grand marshal of the 1976 Daytona 500.)
While Carter campaigned at a NASCAR race before winning the White House in 1976, Reagan became the first sitting president to attend a race when he served as grand marshal of the Firecracker 400 at Daytona in 1984, where Richard Petty won his 200th career race.
ATLANTA, GA – 1976: NASCAR car owner Bud Moore talks with United States President Jimmy Carter at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Atlanta, Georgia, circa 1976. (Photo by ISC Archives via Getty Images)
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Reagan’s vice president, George HW Bush, was an honorary starter in the 1983 Daytona 500 and returned as president nine years later, for the summer race, while running for re-election in 1992 – c t was a race he would lose to Bill. Clinton.
Did anyone mention Bill Clinton and NASCAR?
Some might say that the apparent shift from Democratic to Republican among the NASCAR fan base began with President Richard Nixon’s so-called “Southern Strategy” in the late 1960s and early 1970s – it s t was an appeal to Southern conservatives that began with Nixon and continues today.
Bill Clinton is a southerner from Arkansas, he sets the tone and knows how to talk. His visit to Darlington to serve as grand marshal of the 1992 Southern 500, two months before Election Day, did not derail his ultimately successful presidential bid, but it became the historic dividing line signifying that NASCAR Nation was indeed a one-party state.
Within minutes of each other during the pre-race festivities, Clinton was booed vigorously when he was introduced to give the starting command, and a small plane flew overhead trailing a banner reading “NO PROJECT FROM DODGER FOR PRESIDENT,” referring to Clinton’s college deferments in the 1960s and controversial ROTC. maneuvers during the Vietnam War.
Clinton could also read a room, so he gave the start command and no other words, and by the start of the race, he and his campaign entourage were on their way to another stop on the track.
Adding insult to injury, or perhaps vice versa, Darlington race winner Darrell Waltrip wore a Bush-Quayle campaign button on his uniform during his post-race press conference.
From the two Bushes to Donald Trump, the Republicans are becoming regulars at NASCAR
Adding to the picture of a clear dividing line, Clinton’s campaign’s unfortunate stop in Darlington came two months after her campaign rival, President George H. W. Bush, was greeted enthusiastically at Daytona as he attended the Firecracker 400 and spoke to the president for a few minutes. tens of thousands of people were present.
Bush had previously been in charge of the race at Daytona, serving as CIA director (1978) and vice president (1983).
Clinton never attended another NASCAR race after Darlington.
His successor, George W. Bush, served as grand marshal of the 2004 Daytona summer race during his successful re-election campaign. And Donald Trump, who had attended the 1999 and 2001 Daytona 500s as a private citizen and potential business partner of NASCAR (a Trump Speedway never came to fruition, however), returned to the 2020 Daytona 500 as grand marshal and has been welcomed with enthusiasm by fans and competitors.
Between the presidencies of George W. and Trump, Barack Obama never attended a race, although he regularly invited the reigning Cup Series champion to the White House for a splashy celebration during the season following. This was of course a controlled environment, free of any hostility from spectators.
President Obama with NASCAR champion Kevin Harvick at the White House in 2015.
First Lady Michelle Obama was not so lucky in 2011. She and Jill Biden, wife of the sitting vice president, attended the NASCAR season finale at Homestead to serve as co-grand marshals and promote a new organization designed to make it easier to train and hire military veterans.
A U.S. Army sergeant who accompanied her was cheered during her presentation, but both women were notably booed by fans.
NASCAR fans made Brandon Brown an unlikely star, at Joe Biden’s expense
President Joe Biden didn’t attend a NASCAR event, but he certainly had an unfortunate connection to a race located deep in the attic of stock car racing: Talladega.
In October 2021, Brandon Brown won an Xfinity Series race there and during his television interview after the victory, his interviewer suggested that the crowd in the nearby stands chanted, “Let’s go, Brandon.” This false statement launched a widely used political slogan, even though fans were chanting something very different.
Trump, during the last election season, attended the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte over Memorial Day weekend. He was welcomed and treated well. There will be no more presidential campaigning for Trump, which suggests there likely won’t be any more visits on NASCAR race day.
President Trump before the start of the 2020 Daytona 500.
It may be 2028 before another presidential candidate waves a green flag or commands the start of a NASCAR race. Is there any chance that a Democrat will break the Republican hold on stock car fans, or even dare to try?
Trends say no, but God knows strange things have happened in recent years.
— Email Ken Willis at [email protected]
This article originally appeared in the Daytona Beach News-Journal: After Jimmy Carter, NASCAR became Republican, from Reagan to Trump
