NASCAR Meets Hollywood

Fans can say what they want about NASCAR racing in Southern California, but the drivers love the party scene.
"It's an experience people from North Carolina don't get to experience, so it's definitely fun for me," said Denny Hamlin, referring to the refreshing change of scenery; foothills to palm trees.

Hamlin joined a gang of other NASCAR wheelmen Wednesday night at Hollywood Avalon night club where the drivers could shed their Southern charm and sponsor-friendly sound bites for some mindless conversation and celebrity sightings.

The event was Auto Club Speedway president Gillian Zucker's second-annual Tinseltown-meets-NASCAR party where the track promoter brings a major A-list of stars and drivers together for one night in a club to ultimately give her race weekend optimal exposure.
It's becoming a must-attend event, Zucker said.

"People don't quite understand why we do these parties but last year we had over 50 million media impressions from our party," she said. "That's important because it's very hard to penetrate this market and for people to understand there's a race in town."

Zucker's highlight of the evening was seeing Aaron Eckert, co-star of the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight.

"He had his face put back together and looked amazing," Zucker said with a smile.
Hamlin, sharing real-estate with the likes of multi-Grammy award winning artist, Pharrell Williams, and Heidi Montag from MTV's The Hills, brought his fashion A-game and was labeled among the partygoers as best dressed driver.

"Yeah I got outside the box a little bit, more than I'm used to," Hamlin said.

The Virginia boy busted out some Salvatore Ferragamo loafers pairing them with a T-shirt sports coat.

"I dressed up more than normal," he added. "I enjoy doing those events. I'd like to do more events like that, but unfortunately we don't have them unless we go to a place like New York City. The celebrities at these parties show the influence NASCAR is starting to have over here on the West Coast."

Mr. Manhattan, Jeff Gordon, was equally trendy and arrived to host the party with backing from Pepsi.

On the list of entertainment was a friendly R/C Car battle between the four-time champion and hip hop lyricist Williams. Apparently Gordon had a Bristol moment and put his plastic piece in the wall before he could get started in the five-lap event.

Williams took the checkered flag and appropriately sprayed the crowd and himself with Pepsi. Although he didn't get a practice lap, Gordon graciously accepted defeat.

"I'm not going to make any excuses, he got me," Gordon said. "We had a fun race and he did a great job. Bringing NASCAR and Hollywood together like that is awesome and Pepsi has a lot of cool things happening this weekend. Things like this will take this event to another level."
Carl Edwards agreed and enjoyed his role as a reporter Wednesday night.

"I got to do a segment for Extra and got to interview Heidi and Spencer [Pratt] from The Hills," Edwards said. "To me this is one of the most fun racetracks to come to. Everyone always bashes the races here but I think it's a pretty good place to race."