Catchfence

Mike Rowe, of Discovery Channel’s Emmy-nominated “Dirty Jobs,” to deliver
most famous words in racing for Sprint Cup Championship at Homestead-Miami

MIAMI—Stock cars weighing in at 3400 pounds tearing around a 1.5-mile oval, trading paint and burning rubber, charging through dust and debris. Competing for motorsports’ ultimate prize—the Sprint Cup Championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway —can be a dirty job, so who better to deliver the most famous words in racing at NASCAR’s Nov. 22 Championship finale than Mike Rowe, host of Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs”?

Creator and executive producer of the Emmy®-nominated series, Rowe will provide the Grand Marshal command of “Gentlemen, start your engines!” to the 43 Sprint Cup drivers competing in the Nov. 22 Ford 400, the headline event of NASCAR’s series-crowning Ford Championship Weekend. Having spent years traveling the country as an apprentice on more than 200 jobs that most people would go out of their way to avoid, Rowe is no doubt up to this task.

“I’m very proud to be the Grand Marshal of the Ford 400 Sprint Cup Championship,” said Rowe, CEO of mikeroweWORKS.com. “I’ve had a lot of jobs in my life but never once have been a Grand Marshal—never been a Grand anything, actually. So I hope I can live up to the billing and give the drivers and the audience the best rendition of ‘Gentlemen, start your engines’ that they’ve ever heard. Thank you to Ford and Homestead-Miami Speedway for this opportunity.”

“Most people who get this honor don’t get a lot of practice leading up to it,” said Homestead- Miami Speedway President Curtis Gray. “But Mike Rowe has made a career of stepping into unchartered waters, so I’m confident this one is going to go off quite well. But after we crown the 2009 Sprint Cup Champion, I will ask that he stick around to help sweep the grandstands.”

A national spokesman for Ford and Ford F-Series Trucks since 2007, Rowe currently can be seen in a series of online videos demonstrating the toughness of the recently launched 2011 Ford Super Duty, featuring the all-new Ford-engineered, Ford-tested and Ford-built 6.7-liter Power Stroke V- 8 turbo-diesel engine.

It’s motorsports history in 2009 as Homestead-Miami Speedway becomes the first venue ever to host all of North America’s premier motorsports championships: the IndyCar, Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car and Firestone Indy Lights Series during the NextEra Energy Resources SPEEDJAMsm Championships; and NASCAR’s Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series during Ford Championship Weekend Nov. 20-22. Great seats for all 2009 Championships are available now by calling (866) 409-RACE or visiting THEChampionshipTrack.com.

- Homestead-Miami Speedway, Press Release