Meet NASCAR's First Tea Party-Sponsored Racer

It is a presidential election year. It's not like partisan politics were exactly escapable anyway.

But now, a conservative group has gotten creative enough - and really, it's amazing this is just a precedent - to throw its hat into statistically one of the Republican voter base's most beloved sports institutions: NASCAR.

Racer Jason Bowles will take his place this Saturday at Daytona International Speedway in the ultra-prestigious Daytona 500 behind the wheel of a car emblazoned with "American Majority Racing" on his hood, "PledgeToVote.com" and "Keep America Free" in front of his spoiler - and all of the above alongside fellow sponsor logos pimping Pop-Tarts, GameStop and Monster Energy Drinks.

Oh, and it bears noting that this weekend's Daytona festivities include an appearance by a lead GOP horse hoping to the reach the straightaway to the White House by the name of Mitt Romney.

A national political organization like American Majority, a 501(c)(3) that trains and assists up-and-coming conservative activists and candidates, sponsoring the MacDonald Motorsports car through the entire 33-race NASCAR season is a racing first, according to the TIME.com blog Swampland. Non-corporations have sponsored cars before - namely, the U.S. Army and National Guard. Likewise, Texas Gov. Rick Perry gave a Texas Motor Speedway team his sponsorship to pump up his reelction campaign.

However, as former George W. Bush speechwriter Ned Ryun (also, son of American Majority founder and former Sen. Jim Ryun) points out, "We want to be a portal into politics for NASCAR Nation. One of the things that excites me is being able to challenge people and say listen, if you are concerned about too much government, too much spending, not enough individual freedom, there's something you can do about it, and that's vote. I thin that's a message that will resonate."

Though it was done a bit differently - working instead through the entertainment industry and its relationship with engaging younger would-be voters - it certainly worked for President Obama in 2008.

According to NASCAR statistics, Nationwide races last season averaged 60,000 in attendance, more than 120,000 for the racing league's premiere Sprint Cup Series events. Despite a 2011 economic plummet, 135,000-capacity racetracks still averaged 80,000 in attendance. The 13 Sprint Cup events broadcast by Rupert Murdoch-owned FOX last year averaged 8 million viewers per telecast. That's many, many prospective voters - and many of those leaning conservatively - that the American Majority promotional teams will be engaging and hopefully registering to vote over the next 33 races.

Voters that Ryun believes can be swayed against what he derides as bigger, more expensive government amid a society where it's harder and harder making ends meet.

"The most effective messages are the ones that resonate with reality," said Emory University Political Science professor Merle Black. "If that's the reality for some of these attendees of the NASCAR races, if it's become so expensive or their income situation has deteriorated, then that would be a way of directly appealing not only to their pocketbook interest, but also their entertainment interesty."

Check out the brief video below featuring the American Majority car's pit team, and tell us in the Comment section what you think of this collision of electoral politics and America's sporting pastimes.