Racing pros revved up for GOP

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Here’s a challenge: Try finding a Democrat in the NASCAR garage.

Richard Petty looked around and smiled.

“You’d be hard-pressed,” said Petty, the winningest driver in Nextel Cup history and — oh, yeah — a hard-core Republican.

If President Bush were looking for a friendly audience in this vitriolic election season, he sure picked the right place. He is assured of getting a warm welcome — especially from those on the track — when he attends tomorrow’s Daytona 500.

“He’s just a great American,” said Terry Labonte, a Bush supporter and fellow Texan. “In times like this, I’m glad we’ve got someone like him in office.”

Without question, this is Republican Country.

Ronald Reagan came to Daytona during his 1984 re-election campaign. Mr. Bush’s father stopped by while running — unsuccessfully, by the way — for a second term in 1992. And now comes another Bush, hoping to tap into a loyal voting bloc.

Why do the Republicans seemingly have such a one-party hold on this sport?

“We’re all individuals,” explained Petty, who once held political office in his native North Carolina. “When the guys in here go to lobby NASCAR, most of the time it’s what can they do for me? It’s not for anybody else. This is not a very socialistic operation in here, that’s for sure.”

Labonte put it more bluntly.

“I guess most of ‘em just have a lot of common sense,” he said, referring to his fellow drivers and Republicans. “I like to say we’re true Americans. We don’t fall for as much … as those guys on the other side of the aisle.”

Not that the Democrats have conceded this group — generally stereotyped as Southern, white males — to the Republicans.

Hoping to follow the model set by “soccer moms” — suburban housewives who helped put Bill Clinton in the White House for eight years — the Democrats have targeted “NASCAR dads” in 2004.

“Every presidential election, it seems like there’s some new, vogue term to describe some key demographic group,” said Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University. “It’s not really NASCAR dads, per se. What some Democrats are saying is, ‘Hey, we can make inroads in what has become a solidly Republican group.’ They don’t have to carry that group, just do a little bit better than they have recently.”

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