Young Eagles take flight in NASCAR race

The EAA Young Eagles program will reach a whole new audience this weekend as a featured sponsor on Joe Nemechek’s NEMCO Motorsports race cars in the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races at Homestead Motor Speedway near Miami.

The sponsorship was donated by Nemechek for the annual “Gathering of Eagles” fundraiser auction at AirVenture last July, and Florida businessman and EAA supporter Bill Bachschmidt won the bidding and donated the race sponsorship to Young Eagles.

Nemechek will run the No. 87 Chevrolet in the Ford 300 Nationwide Series race on Saturday, Nov. 20, at 4 p.m. EST, on ESPN2; and the No. 87 Toyota in the Ford 400 Sprint Cup race on Sunday, Nov. 21, at 1 p.m. EST, on ESPN.

“We truly appreciate Joe Nemechek and Bill Bachschmidt for their efforts to make this sponsorship possible,” said Steve Buss, Young Eagles program executive director. “NASCAR events provide tremendous visibility for companies and programs throughout the country, and we hope that this recognition will inspire even more young people to discover Young Eagles and the possibilities within the world of flight.”

The Young Eagles program began in 1992 and has since provided nearly 1.6 million youths age 8-17 with a flight in a general aviation airplane. After successfully reaching that goal, Young Eagles has continued with more than 43,000 EAA-member pilots providing their time and aircraft to fly young people. Thousands of Young Eagles have advanced to collegiate aviation programs, military academy flight training and even into professional pilot careers.

“I’m just honored to be a part of Young Eagles through this sponsorship,” said Nemechek, who visited the EAA AirVenture fly-in in Oshkosh with his 13-year-old son last July. “I owned aircraft for more than a decade and know how important aviation is to the entire country and to what we do in the racing community. Any opportunity to showcase aviation education for young people is important and I’m very happy to represent Young Eagles at Homestead.”

For more information: YoungEagles.org