Mr. Hindery, who finished first at Le Mans in 2005 and currently serves as an economic adviser to the presidential candidate John Edwards, hugged Mr. Spitzer, then bellowed that the governor was “the best Jewish Nascar fan they’ve ever had.”
Mr. Spitzer beamed. “Hey come on, we’re trying to cross all cultural barriers here!” he cracked. Not long after, he headed to a tent to chat with the elite drivers of the sport, who were gathered with a pastor, and bowed his head with them as the pastor asked for protection from harm on the track “in Christ’s name.”
For almost nine hours on Sunday, Eliot Spitzer, the Upper East Sider with the Princeton and Harvard education and the reputation for a hyperkinetic braininess, indulged his other side. Nascar, possibly the vehicle for the nation’s most overt display of country fried machismo, has recently become a calculated interest for ambitious politicians trying to appeal to a working-class male demographic.
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