After a Tough Week, Senator Looks to Be Tracking Toward '08
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 30, 2005
CONCORD, N.C., May 29 -- "Senator Frist!" the Coca-Cola executive kept alerting the NASCAR drivers as they hoofed past the majority leader after they were introduced before Sunday's crash-strewn Coca-Cola 600.
The Coke exec added an insistent jerk of his thumb to show them who he was talking about. For good measure, the Tennessee Republican had "Senator Bill Frist" embroidered above the right pocket of the starched white short-sleeve shirt that had been issued by his hosts, the Coke folks.
But most of the drivers still paid little attention. So Frist decided to make himself useful and started steering the drivers toward young autograph-seekers directly across from him on the other side of the chute that took the drivers offstage.
"He's your biggest fan!" Frist told Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 12 Alltel Dodge, gesturing insistently toward 21-year-old Wes Sandifer of Seneca, S.C., who quickly scored a signature on his cap.
Getting results in Washington has proved more elusive. Frist was coming off a frustrating week in which Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- like Frist, a likely '08 presidential hopeful -- upstaged him with a deal to prevent a meltdown over judicial nominations, and the Senate went home for Memorial Day recess without confirming John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations. So there was an unmistakable urgency as the 53-year-old transplant surgeon flew into Lowe's Motor Speedway to serve as honorary starter at stock car racing's version of a marathon -- the 400-lap, 600-mile evening race that was shown on Fox and drew 175,000 fans to the Charlotte area.
During a two-day stay, he was introduced at the drivers' meeting, worshiped at the chapel service that followed, quizzed crew chiefs about the science of tire pressure as he sauntered down pit road, and watched a Charlie Daniels concert in the extracurricular area known as "Speed Street." With his wife, Karyn, he rode in a Corvette convertible in a pre-race parade.
On race day, Frist stumbled during an appearance in the massive media center, referring to Tennessean Sterling Marlin as "Sterling Martin," and failed to correct himself. D'oh!
Among the acres of tailgaters, the senator was a cipher.
"Bill France ? " asked an excited Sean Boyland, 37, nursing a Bud Light in the pre-race heat and wearing a T-shirt that showed a police officer with the slogan "Buzzkiller." But Boyland, a paver, was disappointed to find out that, no, the starter would not be William C. France, head of NASCAR's founding family.
Before the drivers were introduced, Frist's voice boomed out over hundreds of loudspeakers posted throughout the 2,000-acre speedway grounds, headed by H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler. "NASCAR has the best fans of any sport in the world," Frist said. "May your favorite driver win! This sport embodies the best in America, and American values. So God bless the troops abroad for defending the values of freedom and democracy . And God bless America. Thank you!"
Frist needs to boost his stock with conservatives if he is to have a prayer in the 2008 primaries, and there is no more potent route to the core of the red states than NASCAR, where Christ is invoked just before the green flag drops.
Bush courted NASCAR voters intensively during last year's run for reelection. In one of the grandest gestures of a highly theatrical campaign, Air Force One banked and dipped a wing over the Daytona 500 as the president arrived to say, "Gentlemen, start your engines."
The political math is spelled out by Matthew Dowd, chief strategist of the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign and one of the architects of its relentless focus on the party's conservative base. Dowd figures that NASCAR fans are 22 percent of all voters in the general election -- roughly the same share as the religious right, "though there is some overlap," he noted with understatement in an e-mail interview.
"NASCAR men are solid Republicans and, interestingly, NASCAR women are swing voters," Dowd added. "And 20 percent of women are NASCAR fans. Approximately a third of all folks who will participate in 2008 Republican primaries will be NASCAR fans. And that includes Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as places like South Carolina," which has one of the earliest nominating contests.
Frist has said he will not seek reelection in 2006, but has said he has not decided what he will do after that. His advisers are laying the foundation of a national campaign, and he doesn't bother to quarrel with how a sojourn like Sunday's is sure to be perceived.
"I think most people project to me as running for the presidency and will look at everything I do," he said patiently. "So I think you have to go back and say why four years ago was I at Bristol, with the same people -- the exact same thing. But whatever I do, the people who are here today -- 180- to 200,000 people who are here -- represent the same values I do. It's patriotism, it is strong on military. It is support of the current leadership of this country -- President Bush. It is the American flag. It is honesty, integrity and family values. And that's exactly the same sort of group that, hopefully, I represent in Washington, D.C."
Frist, who is among the wealthiest of the Senate millionaires because of his family's stake in the hospital chain HCA, recounted his NASCAR roots. "I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee," he said. "Nashville Speedway was about, probably, four miles from my house. My first recollections of stock car racing were being in my house on Bowling Avenue, and on warm summer nights, when I was 7, 8 years old, listening to the sounds of cars."
Frist also pointed out that he "has spent a lot of time around engines, and grew up flying small planes."
He drew an analogy to surgery. "You have a team of about eight to nine people, working on a car, preparing to race tonight -- everything from tires to suspension to engine to appropriate panel size to weight, all coming together almost like a symphony in preparation for a run of 600 miles tonight," he said. "So from a technical aspect, my years as a surgeon who has worked with artificial hearts and lasers and mechanical devices is sort of an innate identification."
Frist's appearance in the media center drew roughly one-twentieth the cameras that had captured "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest battling NASCAR driver Greg Biffle on a racing simulator 20 minutes earlier. Frist also ran into the "American Idol" cast when he stopped by the Charlie Daniels show.
"I got to say a few words and then when they came out, they tore the house down," Frist said. "So I was the warm-up for the American Idol. And I was pleased. I was happy to do just that."
NASCAR publicists contend that the sport has a diverse fan base, including 40 percent women and 39 percent from the West and Northeast. But the sport's Southern conservative cast is obvious.
Many of the drivers started with nothing and are now worth millions -- and are proud Republicans.
At the race's end, Frist awarded the trophy, won in the final turn by Jimmie Johnson, in Victory Lane after the grueling 5 1/2 -hour event. Besides the exposure he received on the huge NextelVision screens at the speedway, Frist garnered a couple of shout-outs from race announcers on the Fox network, including a compliment that he was "a very interested spectator" for remaining in the starter's tower for the first 11 minutes.
Earlier in the afternoon, Frist predicted the No. 97 Ford, driven by Kurt Busch to win. Busch, waiting for the chapel service, said he didn't know Frist, but said he is a Republican. "With a name like 'Busch,' it speaks for itself," said the short, trim driver, playing with his cell phone. Asked about Frist's presence, Busch said NASCAR fans and drivers are "a good crowd to be involved with, to say the least.
"When they see a power figure -- whether it's a sponsorship, or whether it's President Bush, who made two trips to NASCAR events -- they remember that," Busch said. "This is a very loyal group. So it's a very good place to nose around and be recognized."
Busch had two accidents and completed only 26 laps.