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IMSA driver Jordan Taylor has two GT class championships, a Top Prototype class championship and a GT class win at Le Mans during a decade of GM affiliation. He also has a long-running comedy character, a Jeff Gordon superfan named Rodney Sandstorm. In general, these two things do not overlap. That changes on Wednesday.
In accordance with an official list of CARS Tour entries, Rodney Sandstorm takes part in this week’s high-profile late model race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. No Taylor, sandstorm. The semi-fictional auto racing superfan drives the #1 Chevrolet for E33 Motorsports, a very real car. Sandstorm will face a field full of late model stars, plus Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and a handful of other big names in NASCAR.
In what wrestling fans would call “kayfabe,” this is Sandstorm’s first run of any kind. It will be his first time at a bullring oval since attending last year’s NASCAR Clash at the Los Angeles Coliseum. For the real Taylor, it’s a stock car debut on an oval after filling in for an injured Chase Elliott at the Circuit of the Americas last month. Taylor tested the car late last month, in his Corvette Racing fire suit what he called “an incredible challenge.” Although Taylor has never competed in a major oval race, he started fourth in the race at the Circuit of the Americas, and a turn to stock cars in his natural habitat is the next logical step.
