This will be on FOX today. Steven Lopez to Deliver Chairman's Message with Yao Ming at Sunday's NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 Two-time Taekwondo Olympic gold medalist and 2008 Olympian Steven Lopez (Sugar Land, Texas), along with professional basketball star Yao Ming, will deliver the Chairman's message at Sunday's NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, N.C. Lopez and Yao Ming will be shown delivering the Chairman's message live on the FOX pre-race broadcast around 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Lopez will also appear on ESPN's NASCAR Now program at 10:45 a.m., and will give a Taekwondo demonstration with the Coca-Cola Racing Family drivers. In addition, Lopez and Yao Ming will receive a demonstration and tutorial from the pit crew members of Richard Petty, and do meet and greets with drivers Bobby Labonte, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin. They will also be announced during the driver's meeting before the race
Dude, that is a wonderful mental picture. Yao would make an even better horse jockey. I guess Shaq already beat him to it though.
Here are some pics of Yao at the Nascar event. "Yao and Steven may not be the quickest tire changers in the garage, but they were great sports and everyone had a lot of fun," said Petty. "Actually, with Yao's reach, he might be able to perform some of the crew duties without ever going over the wall." Later, the six-time NBA All-Star and member of the Chinese Olympic basketball team took to more familiar turf, challenging drivers from the Coca-Cola Racing Family to a fun, yet lopsided, game of "Around the World" on a hoop set up in Victory Lane. Recounting his attempt to shoot baskets against Yao, Burton said, "While I probably didn't give Yao much of a challenge at the hoop, I'd like to see how he'd fare swapping paint with me at 200 mph on the track. Unfortunately, I don't think he'll fit into a stock car!" "The Coca-Cola 600 is my first NASCAR race and it's been awesome to meet the drivers, change a few tires and feel the passion of the fans," said Yao. "It was also great to share the new Coca-Cola Olympic cans with NASCAR fans and drivers. By bringing together NASCAR and the Olympics I know we've definitely 'Connected with the World Over a Coke' today." http://www.pr-inside.com/olympic-athletes-and-nascar-stars-connect-r607605.htm
im hearin nothin but crickets. wonder if yao got to ride around in the pace car any... well it's a truck today.
Well lots of Asians like street rodding but almost zero for the Nascar. I'd have to say his marketing team was aiming at a totally different market with this photo op.
found this on the internet. Yah I'd have to say the Yao Nascar thing was pretty off the wall considering this article. But when Toyota became the first Japanese car company to debut at NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series' Daytona 500 recently - the most lucrative series in stock car racing - the reception they received from many fans was not only frigid, it came with a good portion of anti-Japanese sentiment. "Just think abut how our troops will be demoralized if something Japanese makes a good showing. It would be like finding 'Honda' in huge neon lights on the Washington monument or finding sushi on the menu at Denny's," Capt. Fogg of Florida writes on his "Human Voices" blog. References to Pearl Harbor intermingled with "Jap" are scattered throughout several anti-Toyota blogs and Web sites: "First Pearl Harbor and now this ... Toyota is single handedly making Asians look bad"; "I mean first, Pearl Harbor, then baseball, and now this! ... they don't belong in NASCAR"; "I ain't gonna sit back and see them Japs taking this place over, they bombed us let's bomb them." http://www.pacificcitizen.org/content/2007/national/mar2-stom-nascar.htm
I know a korean dude from atlanta who's heavily into nascar. it just depends on where you grow up and what you and your friends grow up following. how many people from areas with large populations of chinese etc following nascar? Exactly. people are always talking about asian this and asian that. obviously the most hardcore/best street racers are SE asian, korean, japanese but I really dont know many FOBs like yao who are into racing. again nothing to do with "asian" it has everything to do with how/where you grew up and how you were socialized.
I guess he didn't know about the constant firebombing of major cities nor the 2 atomic bombs :/. Then again asking for a Nascar fan to know something about history may be asking for too much.
yahoo link Here are more Yao' quotes from the press conference. Yao shaken by China’s earthquake tragedy By MIKE CRANSTON, AP Sports Writer CONCORD, N.C. (AP)—Yao Ming wakes up each morning and immediately heads for the computer to get the latest on the earthquake that devastated China. The Houston Rockets All-Star center and China’s most recognizable athlete awoke Sunday to more bad news: a powerful aftershock had killed one person and destroyed 70,000 homes. “Every day the number is going up. This morning it was over 62,000 people killed,” Yao said. “We are very sad for the people we have lost in the earthquake.” Yao was at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on Sunday, shooting hoops with NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers and getting a lesson on changing tires from Kyle Petty’s pit crew as part of a promotion with Coca-Cola. But a somber Yao was clearly focused on the devastation to his home country. “We have a long way to go to create a new place for the people who don’t have a place to stay right now,” Yao said. Yao, who has donated $290,000 and filmed public service announcements through the Red Cross for the relief efforts, led the crowd in a moment of silence for China’s victims before the Coca-Cola 600. “The best thing you can do for the government is to send money there and people there to help them,” Yao said as he sat in a motor home parked in the track’s infield. “But we also need to warm them. They’re hurt mentally by the earthquake. I heard some kids cannot sleep in the middle of the night because they’re scared. Any kind of help—it’s more than just the money.” Yao said he has one friend who lives in the central Sichuan province most affected by the magnitude 7.9 quake that hit May 12. His friend called him three days later to say he was OK. “It’s really sad over there,” Yao said. “His city is affected, but not major damage. But after a couple of minutes he said. ‘I’ve got to go. The house is shaking again.”’ Yao was expected to be play an ambassador’s role this summer as his country prepares to host the Olympics for the first time. Determined to be ready to lead his country’s basketball team, Yao has been busy rehabbing his left foot after undergoing surgery in March to repair a stress fracture. The injury caused him to miss the final two months of the NBA season. Yao began running last week and said he’s pain-free. He hopes to begin playing in some light-contact basketball scrimmages in a couple of weeks. Yao says he remains on schedule to play in a couple of exhibition games before China’s Olympic opener against the United States on Aug. 10. “I don’t want to push that too much because we need to do that in a safe way, but the Olympics are only 70-some days to go,” Yao said. The earthquake tragedy has tempered China’s nationwide celebration. The Olympic torch relay was halted briefly and shortened, and Yao is particularly concerned about the thousands of schools that were damaged or destroyed. “Number one right now is to save people’s lives,” Yao said. “On May 12 people forgot about the Olympics. People forgot about the torch. Let’s focus the government and the people on saving as many lives as we can. “We still lost a lot. We will limit the celebration a little bit because of those we lost.”
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