Per Star-Telegram, The No. 81 car in the Nationwide O'Reilly Auto Parts 300 on Friday night will feature messages that sponsors hope will encourage conservative NASCAR fans to register to vote and cast ballots this year.
"We believe in free market, free enterprise, individual liberty," said Drew Ryun, president of American Majority Action, the group sponsoring the No. 81 car driven by Jason Bowles in 33 NASCAR races this year. "We believe the NASCAR crowd believes as we believe, and we want to make sure they are fully engaged. We want to make sure their voices are heard at the polls."
Increasingly, politicians and political causes are sponsoring race cars to get their name or message out to NASCAR fans, who number in the millions.
In February, then GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum sponsored the No. 26 Ford Fusion driven by Tony Raines in the Daytona 500. "I know that when you sponsor a NASCAR car, as we did in the Daytona 500, you're supporting a sport that people want to watch, and so you're out there on the side of the folks that you want to relate to," Santorum said this year.
Converservative political group to sponsor car at Texas
