Leno Ready to Put Pedal to Metal
Only moments before the green flag drops over the 43-car field in the Daytona 500, it will wave over comedian Jay Leno.
The late-night TV host is scheduled to drive the pace car Sunday that will lead NASCAR’s top drivers to the start-finish line at Daytona International Speedway.
It’s a task that Leno -- an avid car collector -- considers a rare treat.
“There aren’t many opportunities in Beverly Hills to run 180 to 200 mph,” Leno said in an interview. “You get to take the car so far beyond what you can approach on the street.”
Leno, 55, knows his way around a racetrack. He drove the pace cars for the 2002 Daytona 500, the 2001 Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the 1999 Indianapolis 500.
For Sunday’s race, he’ll be driving a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 with a 500-horsepower engine. That’s more than enough oomph to reach the 80 to 100 mph speeds he’ll need to lead the drivers through their warm-up laps.
Leno said he wouldn’t charge Chevrolet or its parent, General Motors Corp., an appearance fee despite all the publicity he generates for the automaker. Simply being able to drive the Corvette at high speeds is compensation enough, he said.
“They called me and asked, ‘Would you like to do it?’ ” he recalled. “My attitude is, ‘Hey, I’m a big car fan, so sure. I would love to do it.’ My fee is that I’ll get to use some GM vehicles.”
Leno said he customarily arrives a day or two before the race to practice.
The extra laps are especially helpful on the 2.5-mile oval at Daytona, where its renowned banking reaches as high as 31 degrees in the corners.
The banking “is the strangest sensation,” he said. “You really know what it means to take a car to the limit, and you can feel it start to move and start to fly as you go through the turns.”
Practice is one thing. It’s quite another to be leading the pack in NASCAR’s most prestigious race in front of more than 200,000 people and millions watching on television.
But Leno said he doesn’t feel any more pressure than he does being on TV.
“That part of it doesn’t bother me,” he said. “It’s not ego or anything, but that’s what I do on a daily basis. I don’t get more nervous because there’s half a million people in the stands.”
Daytona Notebook
* Actor James Caan also will be in one of the pace cars, but no word on whether he’ll be sitting next to Leno. Caan also will be grand marshal of the race.
* The MB2 Motorsports team is fielding three veteran drivers in the Daytona 500 -- Bill Elliott, 50; Sterling Marlin, 48; and Joe Nemechek, 42, all in Chevrolets -- and the team has been nicknamed “the Geritol Gang.” The three have won 58 Cup races, and Elliott and Marlin are two-time winners of the Daytona 500.
Last Laps
* Preparations began for the 32nd Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 9, including setting the first of 14 million tons of concrete blocks that line the 1.97-mile circuit in downtown Long Beach.
The two-month job also includes installing three miles of fencing, 16,000 bolted-together tires and constructing 15 grandstands and seven pedestrian bridges.
* Perris Auto Speedway switches to its night schedule for the rest of the year Saturday night as the USAC/CRA sprint car series resumes.
Cory Kruseman of Ventura holds a one-point edge over defending series champion Damion Garner of Concord, Calif., after placing second in the season opener in Phoenix and fourth two weeks ago at Perris.
* Former CART and Formula One champion Nigel Mansell, longtime NASCAR West Coast driver Hershel McGriff and drag racer Chris Karamesines are among seven drivers who will be inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America on Aug. 17.
The others are sports car driver Elliott Forbes-Robinson, seven-time motocross champion Jeff Ward, NASCAR pioneer Curtis Turner, and Tom Carnegie, the longtime voice of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.