Gus Malzahn, Grand Marshal of Geico 500, welcomes NASCAR driver Erik Jones

Gus Malzahn, Grand Marshal of Geico 500, welcomes NASCAR driver Erik JonesGus Malzahn, Grand Marshal of Geico 500, welcomes NASCAR driver Erik Jones

April 6, 2018

By Greg Ostendorf
AuburnTigers.com

AUBURN, Ala. -- Who better to serve as the Grand Marshal at Talladega than Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn, the king of tempo and going fast?

On Friday, it was announced that sixth-year head coach will serve as the official Grand Marshal for the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 29. Malzahn, who served as the track's honorary pace car driver in spring of 2014, will be a part of pre-race activities at the start-finish line and call out the traditional, "Drivers, start your engines."

"I'm really looking forward to being the Grand Marshal at Talladega," Malzahn said. "It was really exciting a few years ago driving the pace car. It was a great experience, gave me a great appreciation of the drivers and how fast they go. The crowd was unbelievable, too, so I'm looking forward to getting back with that group, too."

On Thursday, Malzahn met with NASCAR driver Erik Jones and gave him a tour of the Auburn football facilities.

Jones, just 21 years old, drives the No. 20 Joe Gibs Racing Toyota and is currently 12th in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings. He was named Rookie of the Year last year after five top-five finishes, including a runner-up finish at Bristol.

However, on Thursday, he was just your average college football fan visiting Auburn.

"It's been fun," Jones said. "It's just been neat to really see the whole operation that they have for their football team. The amount of preparation they do in general is really off the charts, and not only that, but the dedication that the athletes have, too, is impressive as well. I'm learning more and more about what it takes to be a student-athlete.

"But this is just an impressive facility. It's neat to get to see it and see what it takes to be a successful college team."

As a part of the tour, Jones met with Malzahn in his office where the two swapped helmets. Jones gave the Auburn coach a racing helmet and received and Auburn football in return.

Tabbed as one of NASCAR's "Young Guns," Jones also took in the weight room, the locker room and the indoor practice facility. He met with the coaching staff and threw the football around with former Auburn player Cole Cubelic. But one of the highlights was spending time with Malzahn, who joked that Jones could be Auburn's tempo coordinator.

"He was a fun guy," Jones said. "He was fun to kind of chat with about some football and then chat with a little bit of racing. He's been out to Talladega a few times, so it's something that he enjoyed and had a little interest in.

"It's always neat to really kind of pick the brain of somebody else in a different area of the world at a professional level and see what they're really involved with and see what they do to prepare and make their team as strong as it is. Obviously, he's had one of the best teams in football for a few years now. It's been pretty cool to see."

Jones, who grew up in Michigan, is a big fan of the Michigan Wolverines. But while his heart might be in the Big 10, he knows the SEC has been the gold standard for college football over the past 10 years, and he got a first-hand glimpse of that Thursday.

"It's neat just to kind of see the culture," Jones said. "And not only the culture of the team, but the fans as well are so dedicated down here. We have great fans up north, but it just seems like kind of a different dedication down here. It's fun to see everybody -- really the whole school seems to embrace these programs, and that's neat to see. And the beautiful stadiums that they have down here, especially at Auburn."

Jones says he'd love to come back to Jordan-Hare Stadium for an Iron Bowl.

The 21-year-old driver also had the opportunity to meet Auburn president Steven Leath on Thursday and made a stop at the Dwight Wiggins Mechanical Engineering Hall where he spent time with some students and got to check out a car that they had designed and built.

And what trip to Auburn would be complete without going downtown and making a stop at Toomer's Drugstore for a glass of lemonade?

"It's a neat campus," Jones said. "It really seems tightly-knit. It's a very neat downtown. It feels very homey and feels kind of like a small town you grow up in, which was cool. It was really neat to walk down there and see all that. And then the football program as well, it was neat to see how they encapsulate the town and really get everybody pumped up and headed in that direction.

"I can definitely see why people want to come to school here."

Jones will race in the O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Greg Ostendorf is a Senior Writer for AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @greg_ostendorf