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Dale Earnhardt Jr. to serve as guest picker for College GameDay
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is making a trip to Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday.
Earnhardt Jr. will serve as the celebrity guest picker for ESPN’s College GameDay. The weekly traveling college football pre-game show will originate from the Battle at Bristol between Virginia Tech and Tennessee. The track, located between the campuses of the two schools, is hosting its first football game.
The appearance will be courtesy of Goodyear. Junior is out for the rest of the 2016 Sprint Cup Series season because of a concussion he suffered over the summer. The Cup Series races Saturday evening at Richmond, so it likely wouldn’t have been logistically possible for Junior to appear on the show if he was racing Saturday night.
“The Battle at Bristol is something we’ve been anticipating for a long time, and I’m fortunate to be invited by Goodyear to participate in ESPN’s College GameDay broadcast,” Junior said in a statement. “I’m sure it will be a crazy college atmosphere, especially around the GameDay set, and I look forward to having this new experience at a familiar place.”
The game will be played in front of a sold-out stadium, meaning it will set a college football attendance record. Bristol seats over 150,000 people and the attendance record is currently held by Michigan and Michigan Stadium. Over 115,000 people saw the Wolverines play Notre Dame in 2013.
ESPN traditionally invites a celebrity with ties to the host site or a team affiliated with the game site the show is visiting. The Week 1 edition of GameDay was held at Lambeau Field and Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was the show’s guest. Junior is the first NASCAR driver to make picks on the show.
Junior is a big football fan, namely of the Washington Redskins. We’ll see what his college football knowledge is like on Saturday, though he’s got an easier task than some pickers do. The weekend doesn’t feature a single matchup between teams ranked in the AP top 25 for the first time since September 2012.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
