As the home to NASCAR, North Carolina is a special place to its racing community and the industry is stepping up in a significant way to help those in the mountains affected by Hurricane Helene.
Michael Jordan, who co-owns 23XI Racing with driver Denny Hamlin and Curtis Polk have donated a million dollars to the recovery effort.
Hamlin drives for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Cup Series and that organization has lent planes and helicopters to deliver supplies to those trapped atop the mountain region called the High Country due to the number of roads that were destroyed by the storm.
These are rural communities and due to the nature of living in the mountains, there are only a handful of ways to get to these towns and they’re all inaccessible right now. They are trapped.
Hendrick Motorsports has also lent its jets and helicopters and RFK Racing co-owner Brad Keselowski donated supplies on Monday afternoon as well.
https://x.com/keselowski/status/1840843606409535603
Former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle has a helicopter license and his own plane and has teamed with internet celebrity Cleetus McFarland
Biffle told FloRacing.com that he first came across a message from a trapped family in Banner Elk, North Carolina that needed to get off the mountain.
“They were renting an Airbnb, so obviously they only had a couple days of food,” Biffle told FloRacing. “It’s not like they lived there where most households would have extra supplies. They were with two young kids. They were out of food. They were out of formula. They were out of water. And there’s no power, and they’d been there for a couple of days and really needed to get out. So that’s really how this whole thing started.”
Biffle has been shuttling supply runs ever since.
Biffle says keeping generators running in community centers until power is restored for residents is a major point of their efforts.
“What they’re saying now is that they need gas,” Biffle said. “A lot of them have generators, but they’ve been there for three days and they’re out of gas. Well, the town doesn’t have gas because they can’t get fueld up there. And there’s no power. Power probably won’t be restored for months. It’s not going to be weeks. It’s going to be months. It might be months before the roads are accessible.”