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Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell of LVSportsBiz.com
The lawman-turned-governor knows a thing or two about car racing.
A day before the Nevada Senate is set to convene on Monday, Gov. Joe Lombardo stepped inside the pace car at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday and led the stock car racers for the Pennzoil 400 NASCAR race in the north end of the Las Vega Valley.
Lombardo, who defeated Democratic incumbent Gov. Steve Sisolak in November, has raced off-road and enjoyed Sunday’s race that was won by William Byron in overtime. The Las Vegas area has been beset with car crashes on local roads, so I suppose it was not unusual to have a crash play a role at the end of the 400 at the Speedway.
Here’s Lombardo, a 60-year-old Rancho High graduate, inside the pace car:
And before the race:
The Speedway hosts two NASCAR weekends a year and the venue has downsized its facility because it no longer draws the giant crowds it used to in the past when there was only one NASCAR event a year.
The Speedway said about 55,000 people attended the 400 event today.
The attendees included two-time National League baseball star and Las Vegan Bryce Harper, who was the grand marshal.
Harper is recovering from elbow surgery, missing the start of the Philadelphia Phillies’ spring training camp in Clearwater, Florida.
But it’s clear his hair is in All-Star, mid-season form.
More scenes round the track: