When Dale Earnhardt Jr. asked his fans on social media to help convince Robert Griffin III to attend Richmond’s late-April race, Richmond International Raceway President Dennis Bickmeier quickly e-mailed Junior’s tweet to his staff. ‘Boom,’ the track president wrote. When Griffin quickly responded, saying he was in, Bickmeier e-mailed his staff again, this time including Griffin’s tweet. ‘Double boom,’ he wrote. In case you were wondering whether Sunday night’s flurry of tweets about getting Griffin to the Toyota Owners 400 on April 26 was just a goof, well, rest assured it was not. By Monday morning, track officials had already reached out to the Redskins, trying to capitalize on what Earnhardt started. ‘Our plan at this point is we’d love to connect with Robert and the Redskins and certainly determine his availability,’ Bickmeier said in a phone conversation. ‘I don’t even know if he knew the actual date of the race. We have to determine all those things first, but we would love to have him. We’ve got a good spot for him, and I think giving him kind of an immersion in NASCAR would be pretty cool. I think it’s a win for everybody. Earnhardt had originally suggested Griffin act as the grand marshal; that’s typically an honor bestowed in conjunction with a race’s sponsor, which is why Bickmeier instead suggested the quarterback drive the pace car. RIR hasn’t used an honorary pace car driver in the recent past; ‘quite frankly, that’s really reserved for someone of RGIII’s stature,’ Bickmeier said. Track officials are willing to make any visit as intense or low-key as the quarterback would like.(Washington Post)(3-26-2014)
