US: US President George W Bush travelled to Florida yesterday to start the famed Daytona 500 stock-car race and court "NASCAR dads" - a key voting group in the 2004 campaign.
"Gentlemen, start your engines," Bush told the 43 drivers at Daytona. More than 200,000 people saw the race in person and an estimated 40 million watched on television.
Heightening the fanfare surrounding his visit, Bush's plane did a fly-over of the event and, after he landed, his motorcade took a spin around the speedway.
Before the race, he mingled with the drivers and expressed admiration for their athletic ability in the NBC interview. He also mentioned his service in the Texas Air National Guard, when he flew fighter planes.
Just as "soccer moms" were the sought-after demographic group in the 1996 presidential race, NASCAR dads are the hot voting group this year.
The label refers to culturally conservative family men who hail from rural areas of the South. The NASCAR dad voting bloc leans heavily toward Republicans, but Democrats are hoping to make inroads by emphasizing economic issues. Analysts say economic insecurity is a key issue for this group.
Florida, the battleground for the bitter recount vote in the 2000 election, is seen as a crucial state in this year's campaign and Bush has made frequent visits to it. "This is George Bush country here," NASCAR chairman Brian France said at the track.