Food City will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its sponsorship of the Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway Aug. 24 with a very special guest serving as grand marshal. The legendary Pat Summitt, the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history who won eight NCAA national championships while coaching at the University of Tennessee, will give the command for drivers to start their engines for the Food City 250, the most popular Nationwide Series race on the NASCAR schedule. This will mark Summitt’s first visit to ‘The World’s Fastest Half-Mile.’ ‘I have always loved sports and will be honored to be the Grand Marshal for the Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway,’ said Summitt. ‘It will be a thrill to hear the engines fire up and the crowd while I say, ‘Drivers, start your engines.” Summitt, who stepped down as coach of the Lady Vols in April of this year, was diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimer’s disease in August of 2011 and is now the Lady Vols ‘ head coach emeritus. She is the only coach in NCAA history, and one of three college coaches overall, with 1,000 wins. She was named the Naismith Basketball Coach of the Century in 2009. In 38 years of coaching the Vols (1974-2012) she never had a losing season and finished her career with an amazing 1098-208 record.Most recently, she was honored with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPY Awards. Trevor Bayne, a Knoxville resident and NASCAR Sprint Cup/Nationwide Series driver, will pilot a ‘We Back Pat’-themed Roush Fenway Ford sponsored by YourRaceCar.com in the Food City 250.(BMS)(7-14-2012)
