NASCAR truck racing: Prelude to Obama

by Mark Silva and updated

Barack Obama would have been the first major presidential candidate to adopt a NASCAR driver in pursuit of fans of the nation's most-watched sport, if he had gone through with this.

But he is not the first presidential candidate.

Another one -- OK, perhaps a minor one -- hired a NASCAR driver in his pursuit of the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2004. The campaign went little further than the truck, however.

Bob Graham, former senator and governor from Florida, laid campaign cash down on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. His driver: Jon Wood, a 21-year-old considered a rising star in auto racing at the time.

Graham's sponsorship of Wood's No. 50 Ford truck introduced a new twist in NASCAR, where corporate logos are common but campaign logos are not. Other candidates had gone this route, but never presidential candidates. Graham's campaign paid Roush Racing, owner of Wood's truck, for several races.

"This is an unusual sponsorship," Jack Roush, owner of the team, said in a statement then. "But, when a distinguished United States senator calls with interest in our program, we're glad to accept the support and participation in the Democratic process in a unique way."

Graham had David "Mudcat" Saunders and Steve Jarding, a couple of Virginia-based consultants who are tuned in to the for-lack-of-a-better-term redneck vote in their home state, which they are gradually turning from red to bue. But the appeal of NASCAR reaches far beyond the mountains of Virginia.

Graham bowed out of the Democratic contest in the 2004 running after poor showings in the early caucuses and primaries. Obama, who has clinched his party's 2008 nomination, might have taken the race much further. But, alas, campaign spokesman Bill Burton said late this evening that "the Obama campaign will not be sponsoring a car in the Sprint Cup series, though we will continue to look for ways to reach out to voters and convey Sen. Obama's message of change.''