When NASCAR fans see celebrities trackside, they always feel that it's either because of a sponsorship deal or a marketing gimmick.

However, when NASCAR visited the Coronado Naval Base in San Diego for its first-ever race at an active military base, it turned out that it was the celebrities who wanted to experience the race of their own volition. 

Dale Earnhardt Jr was asked by his co-host TJ Majors what it was like meeting Travis Kelce trackside. He revealed that all the celebs he met wanted to be there. 

On the latest episode of Dale Jr. Download, he responded, “They reached out to NASCAR, and they reached out to Amazon and said,  ‘How do we get to this race? We want to come; we’re gonna be in the area, and we want to come see it.’”

Dale Jr. said that it felt like Formula 1, where several celebrities are often spotted, and often it’s not them being brought in, rather them wanting to be seen at such an event and getting to witness such racing.

Junior said, “That's what San Diego felt like a little bit. Especially when that happened, so I’m just thankful they wanted to be there; they weren’t asked to be there.”

Junior also revealed that it felt very different because of what he had heard about celebrities usually turning up to Cup races. 

He said, “My boss told me usually every celebrity you see has been brought to the race through a partnership, a request from a sponsor of theirs, or even the outright series is paying for them to be there or give them something.”

Dale Jr left impressed by celebrity turn-up despite hurdles

Travis and Jason Kelce were trackside at San Diego with Amazon while Patrick Mahomes was there with Kyle Larson’s 5 HMS team. Super Bowl champion Drew Brees served as the Grand Marshal while MLB legend Trevor Hoffman was the honorary pace car rider.

While several others also turned up, the big names all went through the security and checks put in place. On the podcast, Dale Jr spoke about the path that he and everyone else had to take to get to the carriers.

“It wasn’t easy to get on that boat. It’s way off from the other side of the racetrack. You had to drive through a bunch of gates, get clearance through those gates. There were guards with guns and all kinds of stuff and multiple points to be able to drive through; you have to show your passes.”

He added further, “All this stuffs not a big problem for him, but it was just a process and then you has to go up several ten flights of stairs to get to where the deck was and then to get into the tower and go up in the bridge was another 5-6 flights of stairs… but the one thing I’ll tell you is Mahomes and all those guys came to that race on their own accord.”

Even listening to Dale Jr., one can understand what a tedious task it was and why one would think that celebrities may not show up. 

But the race in San Diego proved that the NASCAR show is still one that people want to come down and watch, including celebrities and athletes like Travis Kelce. 

Which celebrity would you like to see trackside in the Cup series? Let us know. 

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason