Tony Stewart, NASCAR Chase Drivers Honored By President Obama

President Barack Obama welcomed NASCAR champion Tony Stewart and the 11 other Chase drivers from last season to the White House on Tuesday afternoon, saluting both Stewart’s amazing Homestead victory and NASCAR’s support of the military.

The following is a transcript of Obama’s comments:

For this year’s White House visit with President Obama, it appears NASCAR’s Chase drivers are all in.

Just seven months after four drivers in the Sprint Cup Series playoff skipped a visit with Obama due to schedule conflicts, NASCAR announced Obama will welcome Tony Stewart and all 11 of his 2011 Chase rivals in a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday.

It was raining, and I was all alone.

Well, not all alone. Though the rest of the NASCAR contingent visiting the White House had breezed through the Secret Service checkpoints and the security hut, I was left behind due to a discrepancy between the date of birth printed on the official entry list and the one on my driver’s license.

Here’s a short (and very amateur) video we took at Wednesday’s NASCAR visit to the White House:

President Obama welcomed NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and seven other Chase drivers from 2010 on Wednesday afternoon in the East Room of the White House.

Here’s a full transcript of his comments:

Kurt Busch will be at next week’s White House visit with President Obama after all, he said Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Busch had previously been listed by NASCAR as one of the drivers who is not attending. But the Penske Racing driver said that “all along, it was my intention to go – we just had to clear up a scheduling issue.”

Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle and Kevin Harvick expressed regret for not being able to attend NASCAR’s visit to the White House and President Obama next week, saying they had other obligations.

Each of the drivers had previously been on trips to the White House.

President Barack Obama will honor NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and the 11 other Chase drivers from last year in a White House ceremony on Wednesday – but nearly half of the 2010 playoff contenders won’t be there.

NASCAR said Thursday that five drivers – Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart – will not be attending the White House visit due to “schedule conflicts.”