Sunday, 06.13.2010 / 8:21 PM / News
NHL.com

Nicklas Lidstrom did two things on Sunday that he's never done before: Attend an auto race of any kind and push a car's speedometer past triple digits. The Red Wings captain was invited to be the honorary pace car driver for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich.

"I watch it on TV, but I've never been to a race before," Lidstrom told the Wings' website.

Seated behind the steering wheel of a Ford Mustang GT on an overcast Sunday morning, Lidstrom took a few laps around the two-mile oval in the Irish Hills, located in south- central Michigan.

"The first few laps I was just keeping it at 55 (mph), but then the last lap I had the chance to step on it a little bit," he told the Wings' site. "It had some power to it. When you come out of the turn you want to step on it and start picking it up. But it was fun, especially on that oval with its 18-degree angle on it. It's a different feeling when you haven't been on something like that before."

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