Jimmy Rane – Great Southern Wood Preserving Founder, President and CEO – to serve as Grand Marshal of Sunday’s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway

James W. (Jimmy) Rane, founder, President and CEO of Great Southern Wood Preserving, will serve as the Grand Marshal for Sunday’s YellaWood 500 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at Talladega Superspeedway, giving the command for “Drivers, Start Your Engines.”

 

Rane is a face that will be well known to race fans. For the last 50 years Rane has been the public face of his company, Great Southern Wood Preserving, Incorporated, the Abbeville, Alabama-based producer of brand pressure treated pine. Best known for its YellaWood® brand products and its famous “yella” end tag, the company employees nearly 1500 people across its various divisions and operations.

 

Rane is a 2018 inductee into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, serves as a member of the Auburn University Board of Trustees, and is president of the Jimmy Rane Foundation, a non-profit established in 2000 to fund college scholarships for deserving students. Since its inception the Jimmy Rane Foundation has provided college scholarships to 422 deserving students who have attended or are attending the college or university of their choice.

 

The YellaWood 500, the second race in the Round of 12 in the Cup Series playoffs, gets the green flag at 1 p.m. CDT Sunday. Saturday will feature a double dose of playoff action with the Chevy Silverado 250 for the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series (12 Noon CDT) and the Ag-Pro 300 for the NASCAR Xfinity Series (3:30 p.m. CDT). A very limited number of three-day camping spaces remain available for purchase in the track’s famous infield for guests with self-contained RVs. Those interested in camping possibilities for the weekend are encouraged to act quickly by calling 1-877-Go2-DEGA.

 

Other pre-race dignitaries and traditions for the pre-race activities for the full weekend include:

 

YellaWood 500: 1:00 p.m. CDT (NBC, SiriusXM NASCAR Channel 90 & MRN); 188 laps

Grand Marshal – Jimmy Rane, Founder and CEO of Great Southern Wood Preserving

Honorary Starter – Retired United States Marine Corps Colonel David J. Mollahan

Invocation – Chaplain Barbara Embry, Citizens Baptist Medical Center

Color Guard – Alabama Army National Guard

National Anthem – 313^th United States Army Band

John Ray Big Rig with giant American flag around track during National Anthem

Flyover – 4 F-16s from Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, AL

 

Chevy Silverado: 250 12:00 p.m. CDT (FS1, SiriusXM NASCAR Channel 90 & MRN); 94 laps

Grand Marshal – Mark Sobczynski, Silverado Marketing Manager

Invocation – Danny Courson, Alabama Raceway Ministries                 

God Bless America – 313^th United States Army Band

 

Ag-Pro 300: 3:30 p.m. CDT (NBCSN, SiriusXM NASCAR Channel 90 & MRN); 113 laps

Grand Marshal: Timmy Hiers – Ag-Pro Companies Partner and Corporate Sales Manager

Honorary Starter: Lance Rudd – Ag-Pro Division President

Color Guard – Alabama Army National Guard

Invocation – Billy Dickey, Alabama Raceway Ministries

National Anthem – Tia Berry from Birmingham, AL

John Ray Big Rig with giant American flag around track during National Anthem

 

Fans can keep up with all the happenings at the biggest, baddest race track on the planet by following Talladega Superspeedway on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and by downloading the track’s mobile app.

 

TSS PR