DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 3, 2018) – Prior to arriving at Daytona International Speedway for Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, driver Ryan Reed visited Crayola Experience in Orlando on Tuesday as part of media activities promoting the 100-lap, 250-mile race. Reed, who pilots the No. 16 Lilly Diabetes Ford Mustang for Roush Fenway Racing, toured Crayola Experience, checking out some of the attractions including personalizing and printing out his own Crayola crayon and seeing Bluetiful, the world’s largest Crayola crayon at 1,352 pounds and 15.6 feet long. His final stop was the You Design attraction where he helped kids color, scan and digitally accessorize their own race cars with the final products being shown on a huge projected screen.
Reed, who is competing in his fifth full season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, has two wins at the “World Center of Racing,” taking home the trophy in February’s DAYTONA 300 in 2015 and ’17. He enters Friday’s race with four top 10s on the season and sits 11th in points after making it to the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs in 2017, finishing eighth overall.
Reed’s accomplishments are all the more impressive due to being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in 2011 at the age of 17. With T1D, the body does not produce insulin. Reed was told his career was over, which he didn’t accept, so he reached out to an endocrinologist who worked with him and had him back in the driver’s seat within four months. Following his return to racing, Reed started his own non-profit, Ryan’s Mission, to bring awareness to the disease.
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