Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

What a way to go

“Big George” Helms went for the ride of his life during the recent NASCAR weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Too bad he wasn’t alive to enjoy it.

Helms, a huge NASCAR fan from Talent, Ore., died from a heart attack in late December. At 6-feet-5 inches and 400 pounds, he never was able to fit into a race car, but that didn’t stop his buddies from granting Helms one final wish.

Several of his friends took Helms’ ashes – with his mother’s permission – to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this past weekend. They told the Associated Press that they approached NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Mike Harmon and asked him to drive Helms’ ashes around the track.

Harmon obliged and taped the urn to the fire extinguisher in his car and took a few laps during a practice session. Harmon later told ESPN that he could hear someone squealing as he drove the car through the first and second turns.

"I swear I did," ESPN quoted Harmon as saying. "I heard a noise I've never heard before. It happened just one time, through Turns 1 and 2."

Helms’ friends also reportedly spread some of his ashes on the speedway before returning the rest to his mother.

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