{"id":432250,"date":"2018-04-06T13:52:51","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T19:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/?p=432250"},"modified":"2018-04-06T13:52:51","modified_gmt":"2018-04-06T19:52:51","slug":"auburn-football-coach-returns-to-talladega-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/auburn-football-coach-returns-to-talladega-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"Auburn Football Coach Returns to Talladega Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Malzahn-dega.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-432251\" src=\"http:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Malzahn-dega.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Malzahn-dega.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Malzahn-dega-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Malzahn-dega-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Malzahn-dega-82x82.jpg 82w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>By Scott McInnerney<br \/>\nWNSP Reporter<\/p>\n<p>MOBILE, AL \u2013 Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn will be the Grand Marshal of the Talladega Superspeedway\u2019s GEICO 500 race on April 29.<\/p>\n<p>After being the Honorary Pace Car Driver of the event in 2014, Malzahn will give the signal for racers to start their engines at this year\u2019s GEICO 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race. Malzahn joined driver Erik Jones on Auburn\u2019s campus Thursday to promote the event.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019m really looking forward to being the Grand Marshal at Talladega,\u201d said Malzahn. \u201cIt was a great experience, gave me a great appreciation of the drivers and how fast they go. The crowd was unbelievable too, so I\u2019m looking forward to getting back with that group, too.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Malzahn took over as head coach of the Auburn Tigers in 2013 and led the team to a 12-2 record in his first year. The Tigers won the SEC Championship and made an appearance in the National Championship game in 2013 as well.<\/p>\n<p>As head coach, Malzahn has a 45-22 record, including a 10-4 outing last season. The Tigers picked up wins against No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Georgia during the 2017 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Auburn will have their annual spring A-Day Game Saturday at 3 p.m. at Jordan-Hare Stadium, and the Tigers start their 2018 season on September 1 against Washington.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on the GEICO 500 race, visit http:\/\/www.talladegasuperspeedway.com\/. Listen to Sports Drive on WNSP weekdays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Inside Alabama Racing with Tommy Praytor Wednesdays at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>By Scott McInnerney WNSP Reporter MOBILE, AL \u2013 Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn will be the Grand Marshal of the Talladega Superspeedway\u2019s GEICO 500 race <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/auburn-football-coach-returns-to-talladega-speedway\/\" title=\"Auburn Football Coach Returns to Talladega Speedway\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4489,"featured_media":432251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145,10,147,117,176],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-432250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-auburn","8":"category-tigers-plains-war-eagle","9":"category-featured-news","10":"category-news","11":"category-top"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Malzahn-dega.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432252,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432250\/revisions\/432252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}