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Bush visits Daytona
Published:
Monday, February 16, 2004
Ludmilla Lelis and Jeff Libby
The Orlando Sentinel
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- When the president of the United States stops by NASCAR's biggest race of the year, even the souvenir coffee mugs get searched.
Secret Service agents making Daytona International Speedway safe for President Bush's visit Sunday broke locks at souvenir shops to make inspections. They walked bomb-sniffing dogs through the infield campgrounds before dawn and again at noon. They checked race fans entering the pit-row area and the Nextel Tower through metal detectors.
"He's the president. What can I say?" said Jackie Anderson, a volunteer at the Pit Stop souvenir shop near the start/finish line who worked during the 46th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday. She and other employees discovered the broken locks when they arrived at the track about 6 a.m.
Despite some longer lines and a few inconveniences, the third visit of a sitting president to Daytona's fabled racetrack went smoothly. Sunday was Bush's second visit to the Speedway. He served as grand marshal of Daytona's July race, the Pepsi 400, nearly four years ago during his first presidential campaign.
The president's motorcade arrived at the Speedway about a half-hour before the race started, and fans of the tent section along Turns 3 and 4 greeted him with raised cans of beer.
With NASCAR great Bill Elliott as his tour guide, Bush stopped by pit row. He peered into the cockpit of Tony Stewart's No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet and met several Nextel Cup drivers, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., the eventual winner of Sunday's race.
When asked whether he would vote for the president in November, Earnhardt answered, "Sure."
"He's a cool guy. I like him," he said.
To the cheers of the sellout crowd of 168,000 fans, Bush announced: "Gentlemen, start your engines," the traditional call to start the race. Then, the president watched part of the race from a suite in the Nextel Tower.
The timing of the president's visit to one of the biggest sport events in Florida this year as his re-election bid heats up was clear to Brian Simpson, a brick mason from Buchanan, Mich.
"Smart move," said the NASCAR fan, who is married and has two kids. "Because to me, the Daytona 500 is bigger than the Super Bowl."
Outside the track, GOP loyalists registered new voters, trying to lure race fans away from hawkers offering free T-shirts and beer cozies.
It is thought to have been the first time either of the major political parties had set up shop outside a stock-car racing event, another sign of the growing cachet of the bloc of voters known as NASCAR dads.
Not everyone cheered the president's visit. About 40 people staged a protest on a sidewalk outside the track, holding signs that proclaimed, "W is for War."
The anti-Bush group received a hostile reception from some fans, including at least one beer bottle tossed its way, while a few drivers honked their horns and gave the protesters thumbs up.
"We want to let him (Bush) know that not everyone welcomes him to Daytona Beach," said Jesse Paris-Wells of South Daytona, one of the protest organizers.
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