Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States and the leading Republican candidate in the November general election, arrived at NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday.
This will be Trump’s second time attending a NASCAR race after serving as grand marshal for the Daytona 500 in February 2020, making him just the fourth sitting president to attend a race at Daytona International Speedway.
The Coca-Cola 600 is being held at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. A member of Trump’s communications staff posted a video clip Sunday afternoon of Trump, dressed in a black suit and red hat, waving to the speedway crowd. Video of Trump’s plane flying over the track had gone viral earlier in the day.
Jonathan Coleman, senior director of public relations at Charlotte Motor Speedway, said this will be the first time in the track’s history that a current or former president will attend a race at the venue. In 1994, former President Bill Clinton visited the speedway as part of the 30th anniversary celebration of the Ford Mustang but did not attend the race.
Trump won North Carolina in 2020, and the state is expected to remain a key battleground state in the next general election. Trump won the state with 50.1% of the vote in 2020, beating President Joe Biden by about 75,000 votes.
The Coca-Cola 600, held annually over Memorial Day weekend as the flagship event of the NASCAR Cup Series, coincided with the 2024 North Carolina Republican Convention, which concluded in Greensboro just hours before the race. Trump, who had not been confirmed as a guest in the week leading up to the convention, delivered a short speech Friday over the phone, with Eric on speaker as he addressed the crowd onstage, according to the Greensboro News & Record.
Trump’s visit to Coca-Cola 600 coincides with the conclusion of his hush-money trial in New York, with closing arguments scheduled to begin on Tuesday. Trump faces 34 felony charges of falsifying business records. Prosecutors say he faked payments to former aide Michael Cohen and is accused of violating campaign finance laws by paying porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 in 2016 to keep quiet about a sexual relationship that allegedly happened a decade earlier.
When President Trump served as Grand Marshal for the Daytona 500 in 2020, his role included uttering what is often considered one of motorsports’ most famous lines: “Gentlemen, start your engines.”
Contributors: Aysha Bagchi, Kinsey Crowley, Michelle R. Martinelli
