President Donald Trump made a dramatic entrance at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, setting off a raucous celebration at the famed NASCAR track.
Thousands cheered as Air Force One performed a flyover and landed at Daytona International Airport a few hundred yards behind the track. Trump’s motorcade arrived a few minutes later, prompting another loud ovation. Both entrances were broadcast on giant video boards around the superspeedway.
At least a dozen drivers were escorted from the pre-race meeting to a private introduction with Trump.
“I got to meet the president! How cool is that?” driver Aric Almirola said.
Trump is the grand marshal for the Daytona 500, meaning he will give the command for drivers to start their engines. He then took a lap around the track in his limousine at the front of the 40-car field.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is on the pole for “The Great American Race.” He hopes to be at the front of the pack when the president and Air Force One departs.
Photos of Air Force One and President George W. Bush departing outside the famed track in 2004, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. leading, are regarded among the most iconic in NASCAR history.
“That’s one of those things that everybody remembers,” Stenhouse said. “It’s such a cool picture to have, even if you are not leading. It is going to be special for all of us involved.”
The president’s visit was widely welcomed by NASCAR fans. Trump 2020 flags flooded the infield, and some fans wore them as capes in the garage area.
Trump’s presence also created huge lines at entrances, with many fans complaining while waiting hours to get through security.
Former NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France, who was replaced following his August 2018 arrest on DUI charges, was on Air Force One with the president and first lady. They traveled from West Palm Beach.
Among those who met them at the airport: current NASCAR chairman Jim France and fellow top executives Lesa France Kennedy and Ben Kennedy.
https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1229108892589793280?s=20
(AP)
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8 Responses
Big deal. Hillary would have received a much bigger reception.
As most of you erliche race fans are aware, seconds after the Trumpkopf’s voiced boomed out, “Gentlemen, start your engines” , another whisper of a voice was heard to issue an order to the mallachim who control the eater and almost immediately the race was cancelled for today because און דער הימל איז געווארן פינצטער
Fakelhadorah is still “with her”.
@Gadolhadorah — knowing the NASCAR crowd…not a chance.
Gadolhadork,
You are incorrect. Hillary would have had an apple placed in her pisk and would have been roasted on a spit like the pig that she is.
correction: eater=weather
Moishelah and Druggie: My President’s day effort at a troll was obviously not up to the standards of our resident professional trollers. I’ll keep my day job. If you really thought I was serious about the Nascar crowd being Hillary fans, perhaps I can interest you in a bridge several blocks from her 2016 campaign HQ in Brooklyn.
Fakelhadorah, most of your comments are so stupid that is is hard to know when to take them seriously.