Daytona racing fans:: "We love you, Sarah!"

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Sarah Palin made a big splash today at the Daytona 500:

Seven-time Daytona 500 winner Richard Petty posed for a photo, singers Tim McGraw and Harry Connick Jr. greeted her, and everybody from Army members and Marines to autograph-seeking fans and kids in wheelchairs got hugs and handshakes.

Crew members on pit road even took a break from changing tires, some stunned to see Palin walking through their familiar domain before the race.

"If you run (for president) in 2012, you've got my vote," one told Palin, shaking her hand.

That was perhaps the biggest bonus of Palin's visit.

No region is a greater bellwether of who will win Florida and its 27 electoral votes than the counties that stretch along Interstate 4 from Tampa Bay, through Plant City and into Orlando and Daytona Beach.

And from an expanded version of the Orland Sentinel story we reported earlier today:

Palin-mania easily surpassed Danica-mania at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday.

[...]

She stopped every few feet to take pictures. One fan asked where her husband, Todd, was on Valentine's Day. Palin said he couldn't make it because he's in Alaska preparing for the Iron Dog, the world's longest snow-mobile race.

As she got moving again, Palin stopped when she saw a boy in a wheelchair to say hello and sign an autograph.

[...]

As she tried to make her way out, Palin kept stopping for her fans, who shouted, "We love you, Sarah!" Her spokespeople kept screaming, "We gotta go! We gotta go!" But Palin kept obliging, relishing all the love.

- JP