Auburn's Harsin says he enjoys his day at Talladega Superspeedway

Apr. 24—Auburn football coach Bryan Harsin, who survived an attempt to unseat him this off-season, appeared to relax and have some fun Sunday morning while talking to reporters at Talladega Superspeedway.

Harsin is serving as the honorary pace-car driver for Sunday's GEICO 500, which is a responsibility former Auburn coach Gus Malzahn handled in 2014.

During Harsin' brief question-and-answer session at the Talladega Superspeedway media center, a reporter jokingly asked Harsin about NASCAR drivers throwing around a football during a rain delay and whether he might recruit any of those guys for Auburn.

"I don't think there'll be any rain today, so I'll have to watch the film and see if there's any of these guys who can actually spin it," Harsin said, smiling.

A few moments later, he contemplated recruiting a racer to play quarterback: "If we have to go that route, then we probably have a bigger problem at Auburn than everybody thinks."

As for serving as honorary pace-car driver, he said, "Actually got an email asking if that was something I wanted to do. Absolutely. It was a pretty easy decision. Honored just to have a chance to do that."

Harsin said this is his first NASCAR race. He attended with his wife, Kes, and son, Davis. Even so he added that he has a "little bit" of a racing background.

"I grew up around drag racing," Harsin said. "My dad had a few race cars. The one I had a chance to drive and license in is a alcohol funny car. Awesome to drive and learn in. So, I drove an alcohol funny car for a while."

Harsin said he appreciates the work of the NASCAR pit crews.

"I've actually used as examples for our football team how precise everything really is, just the execution and how fast it really is," he said. "So, I'm always impressed at how the teams are put together, who the team members are, and the leadership from each crew that each organization provides."

As for how Cup racing is like football, he added, "From what I've seen in watching these guys and watching the interviews and watching what they have to do to prepare themselves, I think there's a lot of similarities. Lot of preparation goes into to a race. A lot of preparation goes into a football game."

Senior Editor Mark Edwards: 256-235-3570. On Twitter: @MarkSportsStar.