Courtesy of Texas Motor Speedway Media Relations
FORT WORTH, Texas – Chip Gaines, who co-stars with his wife Joanna on HGTV’s hit television show Fixer Upper, has been named as the honorary pace car driver for the AAA Texas 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoff race Sunday, Nov. 5, at Texas Motor Speedway.
Gaines will lead a pack of 40 drivers, including the Round of 8 championship contenders, to the green flag in the official 2017 Chevrolet SS pace car in his role as the honorary pace car driver for the AAA Texas 500. He also will be acknowledged at the driver/crew chief meeting in the NASCAR XFINITY Series garage prior to the race at 11 a.m. CT and on stage during pre-race festivities.
The AAA Texas 500, part of NASCAR’s 10-race playoff format, will start at 1 p.m. (TV: NBC Sports Network, Radio: PRN, SiriusXM Radio, 95.9 FM The Ranch locally).
“I’m honored to have been invited to drive the pace car in November, but I can’t promise that I’ll pull over after the first lap,” Gaines said. “And growing up in Colleyville, this might actually be the first time I don’t get in trouble for speeding in Roanoke.”
The visit also will serve as a homecoming for the 42-year-old Gaines, who was born in Albuquerque, N.M., but grew up in Colleyville and graduated from Grapevine High School in 1993. He played high school baseball and later went on to play at Northlake College in Irving for a year before transferring to Baylor.
His baseball dreams may have vanished at Baylor, but the university’s Hankamer School of Business became his focus and gave him the foundation for his numerous successful business ventures after graduating in 1998.
The couple, who met after both graduated from Baylor, has been gutting, remodeling and flipping homes together for the past 12 years as owners of Magnolia in Waco, Texas. They have worked on more than 100 homes together, combining his great instinct on real estate and her unique eye for design.
The Gaines’ business ventures include Magnolia Market, Magnolia Silos, Magnolia Blog, Magnolia House and Hillcrest House, Magnolia Realty, Magnolia Journal and their restaurant, Magnolia Table, which is set to open in early 2018. Magnolia also just announced a partnership with Target, called “Hearth & Hand with Magnolia,” which hits Target stores nationwide on Nov. 5.
Tickets for the AAA Texas 500 start as low as $49 for adults and $10 for children 12 and under. To purchase tickets or for additional information, call the Texas Motor Speedway ticket office at (817) 215-8500 or visit www.texasmotorspeedway.com.
