{"id":31411,"date":"2016-08-01T20:53:45","date_gmt":"2016-08-02T02:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=31411"},"modified":"2016-08-01T20:53:45","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T02:53:45","slug":"israeli-driver-on-track-to-make-nascar-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/israeli-driver-on-track-to-make-nascar-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli driver on track to make NASCAR history\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>(JTA) \u2014 Alon Day could make history as the first Israeli to drive in a NASCAR national series race.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Day, a 24-year-old from Ashdod, Israel, is poised to make his debut in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Aug. 13 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, USA Today reported Saturday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Xfinity Series is NASCAR\u2019s second-tier league, behind only the Sprint Cup Series. According to USA Today, Day\u2019s next opportunity to make his Xfinity Series debut would be Aug. 27 at the Road America course in Plymouth, Wisconsin.<\/div>\n<div>USA Today noted that it is not known whether NASCAR has ever featured a Jewish driver in one of its top leagues.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Day, who now lives in Tel Aviv, was one of 11 drivers selected to the NASCAR Next program in May. The program is designed to develop and promote the sport\u2019s upcoming stars.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Since Israel is not a center for motor sports, Day got his start as a teenager in Go Kart racing. For the past two years he has raced in NASCAR\u2019s European circuit, the Whelen Euro Series.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>As USA Today reports, Day\u2019s NASCAR hopes were recently given a boost by a Jewish lawyer from Florida. NASCAR fan David Levin, 63, was watching a race in April when \u201cDuck Dynasty\u201d star Phil Robertson gave an invocation and said that he hopes \u201cwe put a Jesus man in the White House.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Levin was offended by the comment, so he reached out to the MBM Motorsports racing team. The Xfinity Series team offered Day a spot.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cJewish kids want to have a sports role model,\u201d Levin told USA Today. \u201cThis is something where the Jewish community should step up to the plate.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Israeli%20driver%20on%20track%20to%20make%20NASCAR%20history%C2%A0\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1491],"tags":[1959,8790,8795,7990,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31412,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31411\/revisions\/31412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}