Much draft. Very vroom. Such ‘Dega.

I may have been away last weekend but I was keeping close tabs on the NASCAR race from Talladega. That’s because the community over at /r/Dogecoin sponsored the #98 Phil Parsons Racing Ford for the race at Talladega. Their funding didn’t go unrewarded because the #98 Dogecoin car, piloted by Josh Wise, finished in 20th place on Sunday.

While finishing 20th might not sound great, it was the second-best finish of Wise’s career and the best finish for Phil Parsons Racing this season. At one point during the race, Wise ran as high as fourth and finished the race ahead of the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Danica Patrick.

The deal came together when the folks at /r/Dogecoin raised $55,000 by crowdsourcing a pool of over 67 million Dogecoins. It’s not the first time that /r/Dogecoin has raised money to sponsor a team. They also pulled together $30,000 worth of DOGE to fund the Jamaican bobsled team for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Dogecoin’s sponsorship of the #98 team was also a topic of conversation during the weekend. Numerous mainstream news outlets picked up the story of the sponsorship, including USA Today, ESPN and CNN, along with a whole host of NASCAR. NASCAR’s Twitter account got in on the action with some Doge-themed tweets tracking Wise’s progress during the race weekend.

As a result of the Dogecoin car’s popularity, there will be a diecast car released. The car will also be included in an upcoming NASCAR ’14 DLC pack. I’m hoping that the team sells more #98 Dogecoin merchandise than that. I’m looking to get my hands on a Dogecoin pit crew shirt. If I ever start doing video content for the blog, I’d wear that regularly.

Here are some highlights from the race, including a mention of Dogecoin during the race broadcast.

By the way, I’ve read that the Dogecoin sponsorship will again be on the #98 during the Sprint All-Star Race in a week-and-a-half. Wise and Parsons said the Dogecoin car will run if the team wins the fan vote into the Sprint All-Star Race. Fans can vote on NASCAR.com/SprintFanVote to get Josh and Dogecoin into NASCAR’s all-star race.