From George Washington to Donald Trump, racing has become a staple in presidential life. While presidents maintained a love of watching horse races, their attention eventually evolved to horsepower.
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When IndyCar drivers roar through the streets of Washington, DC, Aug. 22 and 23, racing within sight of the White House, they’ll be adding another chapter to a story that stretches back to the founding of the republic.
Presidents have been going to the races since the nation began.
Long before modern motorsports, presidents spent weekends at horse tracks and bred champion thoroughbreds. They, like America, later also took to cheering on the country’s fastest automobiles.
The love of racing goes back to the nation’s first president.
George Washington bred racehorses at Mount Vernon, his Virginia home, and was, according to the third president, Thomas Jefferson, “the best horseman of his age.” Washington was a regular at racetracks throughout Virginia and Maryland and filled his diaries with notes from more than 150 foxhunts.
For Washington and other members of Virginia’s gentry, horsemanship was not only practical and recreational; it was also a way to display social position and the qualities expected of an 18th century gentleman.
How horse racing became a staple of presidential life
Horse racing quickly became part of the social and political life of the new federal city. The same year stonemasons finished erecting the walls of the President’s House in 1798, a mile-long track was laid out just west of it. In 1802, a more elaborate track, the National Race Course, opened roughly 2 miles north.
Jefferson rarely missed a meet at the new course. President James Madison and first lady Dolley were also frequent patrons. The country’s leading horses competed at the track while the accompanying Jockey Club dinner and ball became a highlight of Washington’s social season.
Presidents Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren and James K. Polk would all become regulars at the National Race Course, too, along with Cabinet officials, foreign diplomats and members of Congress.
Jackson even once pulled his then vice president out of the path of an unruly horse, shouting, “Get behind me, Mr. Van Buren. He will run you over!” – a moment immortalized by political cartoonists mocking Van Buren’s political dependence on Jackson.
But Jackson’s love of horse racing was legendary. He bred racehorses at Hermitage, his Tennessee home, and in 1834 built a 10-stall stable on the White House grounds for his thoroughbreds, entering horses into races under the name of his nephew and private secretary, Andrew Jackson Donelson, to avoid criticism over presidential gambling.
By the time Civil War hero and accomplished horseman Ulysses S. Grant entered the White House, horse racing remained one of the country’s most celebrated sports. An expert rider and Arabian breeder who never lost his affection for fast horses, Grant was the last president actively involved in horse racing, speeding them down Pennsylvania Avenue.
American presidents trading horse racing for horsepower
Ultimately, while presidents maintained a love of watching horse races, their attention largely evolved to horsepower.
In 1909, President William Howard Taft converted the White House stables into the Executive Mansion’s first garage, part of a $12,000 congressional appropriation for the White House’s first official automobile fleet (a White steamer, a Baker electric and two Pierce-Arrows).
Richard Nixon favored both racing hooves and racing tires. He attended the Kentucky Derby as a presidential candidate and later as president, in 1969. He later invited more than a hundred race crew chiefs, promoters, owners and drivers, including the famed Richard Petty (and Petty’s iconic NASCAR #43), to a White House reception in 1971.
Nixon said he got the idea while helicoptering over more than 100,000 fans at California’s Ontario Motor Speedway’s opening day a year before.
Jimmy Carter’s affection for NASCAR long predated his presidency. Growing up in rural Georgia, he became a devoted fan of stock-car racing, and as governor he regularly welcomed NASCAR figures to the governor’s mansion. He later fulfilled a campaign promise by inviting more than 400 drivers, crewmembers, officials and their families to a South Lawn reception in September 1978.
Carter had to miss the celebration. While first lady Rosalynn Carter welcomed the guests and Willie Nelson entertained, the president was at Camp David negotiating the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel.
Ronald Reagan was the first sitting president to attend a NASCAR race when he traveled to the 1984 Firecracker 400 at Daytona Beach, Florida. Reagan even started the race from Air Force One before landing to watch Petty capture his historic 200th and final career victory.
George W. Bush served as grand marshal of the Daytona 500 in 2004, as did Donald Trump in 2020. President Trump set the pace for the field with his presidential limousine taking a lap, as he did again in 2025.
Now instead of presidents going to car races, the races are coming to DC.
From President Washington’s thoroughbreds to President Jackson’s White House stable, from Grant’s fast trotters to Indy cars circling the National Mall, America’s chief executives have embraced the power of racehorses and race cars alike.
Every era in White House history produced its own version of raceways and competitions. This weekend adds another.
Stewart D. McLaurin is president of the White House Historical Association, a private nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded by first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1961.