Every NASCAR Driver With the Same Name as a US President

Photo Credit: Bench Racing from the Volunteer State

By Zane Miller

With only 45 different men (two of which with the same first and last name) holding the title of President of the United States in the country’s 250-year long history, the odds of a NASCAR driver later or retroactively sharing the same given name and surname with one of these individuals is rather low, though not impossible by any means. With it being Presidents' Day, it’s time to take a look at these racers who beat the odds and made it amongst NASCAR’s highest ranks, despite not capturing the same level of notoriety as their presidential counterparts.

The first such driver is Woodrow “Woodie” Wilson, who made his Cup Series debut during its inaugural season in 1949. Sharing his name with the United States’ 28^th president, Wilson was born in 1925, less than five years after the president left office and about a year and a half after his death. After finishing 17^th in his debut on the Daytona Beach & Road Course, Wilson would not attempt another NASCAR event until 1955 in another one-off appearance. However, in 1961, he did what he became most well-known for by claiming Rookie of the Year honors. This came despite making just five starts in the 52-race schedule, though he was able to collect a ninth-place finish at Atlanta International Raceway (now EchoPark Speedway) for his first career top-10. Wilson ended up 41^st in points, well behind fellow rookies Wendell Scott, who took five top-10s in 23 races and came in 32nd in points, and Lee Reitzel who scored three top-10s in 17 races and finished 37th in the final standings.

Wilson made just three more starts at the Cup Series level, but posted his career-best finish of seventh in 1962 during the second Daytona 500 Qualifier, which was an official points race at the time. Unfortunately, the last two races saw him drop out in the early laps with mechanical failures, and his time in Cup is remembered as the most puzzling Rookie of the Year selection in series history.

Not long after Wilson’s entry into NASCAR, driver George Bush found his way into the Cup Series in the 1952 season. The 41-year-old native of Hamburg, New York made his first start at the infamous Langhorne Speedway, where he finished 123 laps down in 34^th. His next start went a lot better by comparison, claiming a tenth-place run at Occoneechee Speedway, albeit 12 laps off the pace. Bush finished his set of races with a career-best seventh at Lakewood Speedway and another top-10 at Palm Beach Speedway (though the latter saw him crash out of the event in the waning laps). He would not attempt another NASCAR race after the 1952 season, and would sadly pass away in 1967. 21 years after his passing, George H.W. Bush was elected as the 41^st president, with his son George W. Bush following as the 43^rd president in 2001.

San Fernando, California’s Bill Clinton had a similarly brief stint in NASCAR, starting with a trio of races in 1961. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to complete the first lap in his opening Cup Series race at Riverside International Raceway thanks to a busted radiator, relegating him to last in the 27-car field. One week later, however, Clinton rebounded at Ascot Park for what would be his career-best result of 11^th, running 34 laps down at the finish. He would race in the series three more times, all of which at Riverside, making his final appearance in 1964. With this being the early 1960s, not much is documented about Clinton, including his birthdate or a possible date of death. What is known is that, almost three decades after the driver’s final Cup start, another Bill Clinton would be named as the 42^nd president.

Born on Christmas Day in 1939, driver John Kennedy was 21 years old when John F. Kennedy became the nation’s 35^th president and was a month away from turning 24 when President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. After growing up in the Chicago area, Kennedy took up local racing and eventually found himself in the Cup Series in 1969. It was during this season that he had his most starts in a season with eight, along with a career-best finish of 14^th at Atlanta in his self-owned Chevrolet.

Kennedy stepped away from NASCAR for the first half of the 1970s, instead competing in the USAC Stock Car Series. However, he made his return to Cup in 1977, racing a partial schedule throughout the late ‘70s after finding sponsorship from Avanti Research & Development. Unfortunately, this comeback would not go according to plan, as Kennedy failed to finish in eight of his 11 races with his #0 entry, nearly all due to mechanical woes. He was able to complete his final Cup race at North Wilkesboro in 1979 with a 23^rd-place result, finishing off his career with no top-10s in his 18 starts. Nonetheless, he still has the most starts of any driver on this list. Kennedy also made a handful of starts in the ARCA SuperCar Series (now ARCA Menards Series) in 1984, before relocating to Florida and competing on local short tracks for the next several years.

As of this writing, there has not been another NASCAR driver with a ‘presidential’ name, but this could certainly change in the years to come, whether it be a future driver sharing a name with a past president, or a future president sharing a name with an already-retired driver. There may even be an active driver and president whose careers converge simultaneously. To my knowledge, these are all of them, but if I missed any or if there are any drivers who have shared names with leaders of other countries, feel free to let me know!

Happy Presidents' Day!