A Driver Officially Entered a Stock Car Race in Character

Jordan Taylor Entered a Race in CharacterAllen J. Schaben - Getty Images

IMSA driver Jordan Taylor has two GT class championships, one top prototype class championship, and a GT class win at Le Mans over a decade of affiliation with GM. He also has a long-running comedy character, a Jeff Gordon superfan named Rodney Sandstorm. Generally, those two things do not overlap. That changes on Wednesday.

According to an official CARS Tour entry list, Rodney Sandstorm is entered in this week's high-profile late model race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Not Taylor, Sandstorm. The semi-fictional stock car racing superfan is driving the No. 1 Chevrolet for E33 Motorsports, a very real car. Sandstorm will be entered against a full field of late model stars, plus Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, and a handful of other major NASCAR names.

In what wrestling fans would call "kayfabe," this is the first-ever race of any sort for Sandstorm. It will be his first time at a bullring-type oval since attending last year's NASCAR Clash at the Los Angeles Coliseum. For the real Taylor, this is a debut in a stock car on an oval after filling in for an injured Chase Elliott at the Circuit of the Americas last month. Taylor tested the car late last month, wearing his Corvette Racing firesuit in what he called "an incredible challenge." While Taylor has never entered a major oval race, he started fourth in the race at the Circuit of the Americas and a turn to stock cars on their natural habitat is a logical next step.

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