NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car champion Robert Hight is headed to Florida this weekend. The newly crowned champion is not going to Disney World rather the Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang driver will be serving as Grand Marshal of the Ford 300 NASCAR race on Saturday. He will be joined by team owner and 14-time Funny Car champion John Force throughout the weekend but Hight will be the center of attention on Saturday afternoon when he utters the most import words in all of motorsports, Gentlemen, start your engines!

“This is going to be an amazing experience. I have never been to a NASCAR race before so this will be a really fun weekend. I can’t thank Ford enough for giving me the honor of being the Grand Marshal for the Ford 300. It will be great to represent the NHRA, Full Throttle, Auto Club of Southern California, Castrol and all our other sponsors at such an important NASCAR race. It will also be fun to experience it with John. We’ll be spending some time in the media center as well as the driver meeting so it should be really interesting,” said Hight in advance of the trip.

NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car champion Robert Hight is headed to Florida this weekend. The newly crowned champion is not going to Disney World rather the Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang driver will be serving as Grand Marshal of the Ford 300 NASCAR race on Saturday. He will be joined by team owner and 14-time Funny Car champion John Force throughout the weekend but Hight will be the center of attention on Saturday afternoon when he utters the most import words in all of motorsports, Gentlemen, start your engines!

“This is going to be an amazing experience. I have never been to a NASCAR race before so this will be a really fun weekend. I can’t thank Ford enough for giving me the honor of being the Grand Marshal for the Ford 300. It will be great to represent the NHRA, Full Throttle, Auto Club of Southern California, Castrol and all our other sponsors at such an important NASCAR race. It will also be fun to experience it with John. We’ll be spending some time in the media center as well as the driver meeting so it should be really interesting,” said Hight in advance of the trip.

Hight will be arriving in Homestead after a whirlwind week of media and sponsor events. Since clinching the 2009 Full Throttle Funny Car championship late last Saturday night in Pomona, Calif., Hight has been interviewed coast to coast including a spot as the Newsmaker of the Week on award-winning journalist Michael Knight’s Race Reporters show on Wednesday night. On Friday Hight will be honored at the Automobile Club of Southern California headquarters before getting on a red-eye flight for Florida for the Ford Championship Weekend festivities and races, he and Force will attend both the Ford 300 on Saturday and the Ford 400 on Sunday.

As the Grand Marshal of the Ford 300 Hight will spend time with the national media covering the race in the media center, attend the drivers meeting, participate in the driver introductions as well as welcome the huge expected crowd to the race before watching some of the race from his Ford teammates’ pit boxes. He will also ride in the Pace Car on the parade lap before the Ford 300.

“Usually John does the talking when it comes to speeches. I was pretty nervous before my acceptance speech at the NHRA banquet but everyone said I did a good job. I am looking forward to representing Ford this weekend and talking to some of their NASCAR drivers and crew guys,” said Hight. “I am also excited to meet some of our Ford fans on the NASCAR circuit. Hopefully I can turn them into NHRA fans if they aren’t already.”

On Sunday Hight will be spending time in the Ford Display, touring the NASCAR garage, walking the grid as well as signing autographs for the fans before the start of the Ford 400.

Fans will be able to keep up with Hight and Force’s day on Saturday via Twitter by following either @FordRacing or @JFR_Racing. John Force Racing will be tagging posts with the hashtag #FORDRH.

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