Brandon Jones trades steering wheel for baseball at Texas Rangers game
NASCAR and Major League Baseball have a longstanding natural affinity.
Boston Red Sox owner John Henry owns half of Roush Fenway Racing and there are tons of athletes in each sport who are fans of the other.
Kansas native Clint Bowyer loves the Royals.
Former MLB star pitcher Randy Johnson is a frequent guest at Phoenix International Raceway.
Kurt Busch went to a Chicago Cubs playoff game last year, while Furniture Row Racing crew chief Cole Pearn was rooting on the Toronto Blue Jays.
Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost and the late Dale Earnhardt were close friends when Yost was the third-base coach of the Atlanta Braves.
You get the idea.
So it was only natural for a big NASCAR/MLB promotion this week, and it's a good one. The Texas Rangers are sponsoring Brandon Jones' No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in Friday night's XFINITY Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Jones, 19, who comes into Texas ranked an impressive fourth in XFINITY Series points, was a guest of the Texas Rangers earlier this week. He threw out the first ball, toured Globe Life Park, did the traditional "jersey swap" and even did a Snapchat session from the stadium.
"We've been on social media all week posting about the Rangers car," said Jones. "Showing them a whole bunch of behind-the-scenes stuff with my race car with the Rangers scheme on it. And I haven't heard one negative comment so far. Everyone has been so positive about it."
Sounds like win-win to us.
