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NASCAR Balks at Baghdad 500

DAYTONA BEACH -- NASCAR is quietly resisting pressure from the White House to schedule a Nextel Cup race in the capital of Iraq as soon as the 2007 season in an effort to gain support for the war effort and possibly to influence the outcome of the 2008 Presidential elections.

"The logistics of such an event would be just unbelievable," said Fox Sports commentator Darrell Waltrip. "Although I understand the Pentagon has offered the use of C-5A Galaxy transport planes to get the teams to and from the race -- now that would be one hell of a hauler."

Insiders say senior advisor Carl Rove is behind the effort to tap into the race circuit's largely Republican fan base in a desperate attempt to swing poll numbers to President Bush's favor over the on-going war in Iraq.

While the government has guaranteed attendance of at least 100,000 based upon current troop deployment levels, NASCAR remains concerned over driver safety, particularly from improvised explosive devices.

The Pentagon is reportedly doing wind tunnel testing on an up-armored Chevy Monte Carlo and Joe Nemechek, who drives the U.S. Army sponsored 01 car, has been running an aerodynamically modified Humvee at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"I figure they'll probably end up getting a Bush race," said Waltrip. "Yup, 'specially if they wanna keep them pre-race fly-bys."










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