Here's your little known fact of the day. Bruce Jenner, in addition to being an Olympian and a multiple plastic surgery having reality TV star with the Kardashian empire, is a former race car driver.

]
Jenner, who served as Grand Marshal today in the Nationwide race, competed in Mustangs for Roush in the 1985-86 seasons, winning two IMSA GTO races with teammate Scott Pruett.

Jenner recalled his time with Roush.
“I had a lot of fun. You couldn’t have found a
better team owner. We had Jack and obviously Ford Motor Company, but
the real key to the whole success was in 1983 I found this kid at a
go-kart track and he was like the king of karting. I talked to him –
nice kid, nice family – and I asked him, ‘What do you want to do?’
And he says, ‘I want to race. This is what I want to do for a living.
This is what I want my career to be.’ So I said, ‘Well, maybe I can
get you in a car with me.’ Well, it took a few years to get him in
the car with me, but in 1985 he finally got in his first Jack Roush
Mustang with me and the rest is history. His name is Scott Pruett."

Jenner said he still loves racing and has much respect for drivers as athletes.
"I competed for so many years in the Olympics and other things, so you look for other
things that you can do and racing, to me, I’ve always loved cars.
People don’t realize how difficult of a sport this is in so many ways. I had dinner with Jimmie Johnson after he won his fifth one and I said to him, ‘I think one of the hardest things to do in all of sport is to win in auto racing and be consistent at doing something like that.’ Him winning five championships is sick because there’s so much to this sport. It’s not only the ability to drive the car, it’s
starting a year in advance with the right technology, putting the right people together and getting that right effort and getting something that everybody can work together. I did it for 10 years and had a lot of fun doing it.”

Roush also fondly remembered the partnership with Jenner.

“Bruce Jenner was a sure-enough athlete and a great competitor. Like all the
guys that have been successful in this business, he was late starting and didn’t stay very long so he didn’t realize his potential that I’m sure was certainly there for him. He was a delight to be around. He was funny and always involved in practical jokes, either a practical joke he had put on somebody else or one that somebody had put on him in an effort to get even or get ahead.”

“That’s not inaccurate, but there were a number of races that we had that were single-driver races and I remember Bruce for his personal enthusiasm and his ability in those circumstances as much as I do for his ability to keep the car out of trouble when we were in multiple-driving events. He seldom put a foot wrong and operated within an envelope that he was comfortable with and he got a lot out of the car on a given day. Now, not every day when you go to the race track do you have the dominant car and on those days you have to take what the race track and the car will give you and not reach for more because if you do you wind up broke or you wind up crashed. That’s a form of self-destruction that Bruce never got involved with. He was 100 percent respectful. He contributed something all the time to the effort and there was no negative downside or dark moment with Bruce.”

Now that Bruce has made an appearance in NASCAR, maybe Jack can make a guest appearance at the next Kardashian get-together?

Become a fan of the Facebook page NASCARBeyond

Follow me on Twitter:
Follow @MattMyftiu