DAYTONA BEACH — Nate Bargatze has an important gig Sunday.
As the grand marshal for the 2026 Daytona 500, he will give the starting command — “Drivers, start your engines!” — a few minutes before the 41 NASCAR Cup Series cars hit the track at Daytona International Speedway. He is the first comedian to fill the role.
The 46-year-old Nashville native has the most watched standup special on Netflix during the past 52 weeks with “Your Friend, Nate Bargatze.” He claimed his first Grammy Award for best comedy album earlier this month.
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And his first feature film, “The Breadwinner,” hits theaters on May 29. He created, co-wrote, produced and starred in the family-friendly flick.
Before the Great American Race, the Daytona Beach News-Journal caught up with Bargatze to ask about his job as grand marshal and his upcoming movie premiere. The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Nate Bargatze and NASCAR history
Daytona Beach News-Journal: You served as pace car driver for a NASCAR race at Nashville in 2023. What do you remember about that experience?
Nate Bargatze: It was great. Those cars are just right behind you. It’s pretty wild. We went to the race. My daughter came to that one. They loved it. It’s just the most fun to be on the track and get to see even a glimpse of it, just to see those cars behind you, it’s wild, dude. We had a great time doing it there, so obviously getting to do it here is times 100.
DBNJ: Have you ever been to Daytona?NB: I’ve been once a long time ago. I came with Bill Burr. This was like 10 years ago or something, so this is my first time back since then. (Bill) was coming down — I don’t think he was the grand marshal, but he was doing stuff as a guest. I was opening for him, and he took me to some races. I think just he knew I was from the south and liked NASCAR. We’ve been to Daytona and Talladega.
DBNJ: Did you have a favorite driver growing up?NB: I grew up a NASCAR fan. I went to DuPont Elementary, so when Jeff Gordon was driving the DuPont car, they brought his car up to the DuPont plant. We were big Jeff Gordon fans. (Dale) Junior, Senior, there’s a lot of them. Bill Elliott. I like Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin. I’m trying to think if there’s one. My daughter likes Joey Logano, so that’s hers, which I think is a lot of people’s.
DBNJ: Have you been practicing your starting command?
NB: I watched a bunch of videos. You just have to be in the moment, I think. Once you have the fly-over and it’s 100,000-something people, sold out, I’m just kind of keeping it, saving it and then giving that excitement. I feel like you’re kind of going to black out and, when you’re done, not even know what’s going on.
DBNJ: You’re used to having a microphone in your hands, but are you nervous about this?
NB: You get excited. I will get nervous once I get there. You’re very excited. You learn to turn your nerves into excitement. You get nervous even when you go on stage, but you just turn it into excitement. But yes, when you do something like this, it is a little different. I’ll be excited, but once you’re there, especially when you’re doing interviews all day, there’s going to be all this big build-up. The next thing you know, you have that mic, and it’s like, ‘Oh man.’ It almost feels like it wasn’t coming, and then it’s here. Hopefully it’ll be good. I don’t have a lot to say, which is nice. It’s pretty basic. That’s what I’ve been told — ‘Just do the words, man.’ The words are the words. Everybody wants to say those words. I grew up watching on TV. It’s like a dream come true to be asked to do it. I don’t want to mess it up. It’s like throwing a first pitch. You want to do the job. You want to be good, but don’t get too much risk, don’t get wild.
Comedian Nate Bargatze set for first movie, ‘The Breadwinner’
DBNJ: Couple of non-NASCAR ones for you: How different is writing a movie script than writing an hour of standup?
NB: It’s very different. It’s a different mindset because the story has to be in there. The comedy and the jokes come easy, but then the story is the big part. I wrote with a great writer, Dan Lagana. He’s great with that. Your mindset is just a lot different. This movie comes from my standup, so it was easy to be able to throw some standup stuff in there. But when you write any kind of script, it’s hard to come up with new material for standup when you’re writing a script because it’s two different ways you’re thinking.
DBNJ: How long did the script take from start to finish?
NB: This one went quick. I want to say it was last year we even pitched it. So this one went super fast. I was on tour, and we kind of had a moment where I could shoot a movie and not mess up the tour. So this one went super fast. We were shooting it — I feel like it was like six months from writing it to being on set. I hear that does not happen. It sounds crazy.
DBNJ: What’s your best pitch on why people should go see “The Breadwinner?”
NB: It’s to get people out to the theaters. Your whole family can come to it. It’s live action. It’s not animated. I think we stand out. It’s a throwback to movies we grew up on — “Mr. Mom,” “Home Alone,” all that kind of stuff. Those are the movies I want to try to bring back. I believe people still want to come out and go to see movies together. You can see it even here with over 100,000 people coming. People come to my show. Experiences are becoming a much bigger thing, and I believe people want to go to the movie theater, and it’s hard to really find something that everybody can go to. I’m trying to stay in that lane. I want everyone to come out, and this is just a fun, silly movie that I think everybody can relate to.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona 500 grand marshal Nate Bargatze talks NASCAR, new movie
Reporting by Chris Vinel, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
