These may be the most meaningful gloves Austin Dillon has ever received — and we’re not talking about the ones he wears inside a race car.
The Richard Childress Racing driver, still floating from his Coca-Cola 600 win at Charlotte Motor Speedway, received a humbling letter earlier this week from Lt. Col. Philip Pearsall.
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The full-page dispatch also contained an autographed pair of Lt. Col. Pearsall’s gloves. Gloves he wore during every single combat mission in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003-06. The gloves, Pearsall wrote, represent “sacrifice, sweat, dedication and hard work” — traits Dillon himself owned in earning his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win.
In exchange, Pearsall suggested a swap of gloves — which Dillon gladly accepted, according to his Instagram post Tuesday night.
“One of the coolest things I’ve ever received came through the mail today,” Dillon wrote. “Hope you guys read the letter. It’s so awesome knowing that our true heroes that defend our country are the biggest NASCAR fans.”
Dillon’s win in the Coca-Cola 600 was the first race in the NASCAR Salutes Refreshed by Coca-Cola platform, a six-week initiative encapsulating the industry’s collective expression of respect and gratitude to our armed forces.
Check out the gloves and images below.
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