Raleigh's honorary Grand Marshal a perfect pick for NASCAR
Posted May 14, 2020 10:57 p.m. EDT
Updated May 14, 2020 11:52 p.m. EDT
NASCAR will have not one, but 36 honorary grand marshals for Sunday's Real Heroes 400 in Darlington.
It'll mark the sport's first event in more than two months. A representative was selected from our region, and she will definitely pack a little more pizazz into those four famous pre-race words: "Gentlemen, start your engines!"
It might not be a moniker Tammy Lee Wheaton King is comfortable with, however.
"I tell people all the time, I'm not really sure how I feel about the 'hero' title," said King, a resident of Castalia, N.C.
But she knows all too well of the altruistic nature of nurses. Two instances stand out. The first involved her father.
"There was something about the way that that particular nurse did her job that night and she didn't do anything extra, she just did her job, and it literally saved his life," Wheaton King said. "She noticed something, she caught it, she knew what she was supposed to do. I thought right then she was probably the smartest person in the world."
The second involved the other man in her life.
"My husband had an incredible recovery from an unrecoverable accident," she said.
It was enough for Tammy to quit her career in accounting.
"Literally, as soon as he was well enough to stay by himself, I went to nursing school. At 45," Wheaton King said with a laugh about pursuing her new passion of becoming an ICU nurse at UNC Rex Hospital.
"It was the hardest thing I've ever done, honestly," Wheaton King said.
This weekend at Darlington Raceway, "the track too tough to tame," Wheaton King's name will be one of many painted on the side of stock cars.
"I'm lucky enough to go back to work, and it's all because of front-line heroes like Tammy Lee Wheaton King, from Raleigh, North Carolina," boasts John Hunter Nemechek, driver of the No. 38 car.
NASCAR couldn't have picked a more apropos rep.
"I'm sure you're not gonna recognize that girl on the left, but the guy on the right is my dad. Wake County Speedway, 1986, maybe?" Wheaton King said, pointing to an old photograph.
Not only is Wheaton King a race fan, she's been behind the wheel a time or two herself.
"That's me in the car," Wheton King said, referencing a second photograph. "I just really appreciate NASCAR doing this, it's always nice to know that you're appreciated."
