Nate Bargatze Delivers ‘Most American’ Command as Daytona 500 Grand Marshal

Nate Bargatze considered squeezing a joke into his command for drivers to start their engines at the Daytona 500. “At first, I thought about doing like, ‘How many feet are in 500 miles?’” Bargatze said. “Nobody knows.” The proposed joke was a riff on his popular “Washington’s Dream” sketches on “Saturday Night Live.” “I was going to do another one with Jimmie Johnson being older to let the younger drivers know that his left blinker will be on the whole race,” Bargatze added. “Then when I got here and talked about it, it’s like, I think you just need to do, normal? You have all these hopes and dreams to do something funny.” [NASCAR: Jimmie Johnson’s Final NASCAR Cup Race: 2027 Daytona 500 Will Be His Last] Nonetheless, Bargatze kept it straight in his role as Grand Marshal for Sunday’s Daytona 500 race on FOX. “It’s been a dream to be asked to do this,” Bargatze said. After Bargatze got things fired up, Bart Simpson dropped the flag to get things going at Daytona. They were just a couple of the many celebrities in attendance at the Daytona 500. [NASCAR: 2026 Daytona 500: Everything To Know About The Great American Race] Bargatze’s day at Daytona — where he mingled with drivers such as Denny Hamlin — is just the latest dream job for one of the most popular stand-ups currently working. He hosted the Emmy Awards, released three Netflix specials and just won a Best Comedy Album Grammy Award for “Your Friend, Nate Bargatze.” What’s more, his “Big Dumb Eyes World Tour” set a record for biggest one-year gross by a comedy performer in history and has set more than 40 arena attendance records. They served as warm-up acts for his first starring role in a movie, “The Breadwinner.” The 46-year-old Bargatze resumes his stand-up tour this week in Rockford, Illinois, and he’s set to host a new TV game show, “The Greatest Average American.” The title seemed fitting when Bargatze was gifted one of only 500 specialty Daytona 500 hats. The hat was numbered 302. Average. “It’s not bragging,” Bargatze said. “I’m right in the middle. That’s where the average American would be. It’s humility. It’s how you go.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.