NASCAR Serves as heist vehicle for film

NASCAR hasn't been the vehicle for a major Hollywood feature film since Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby a decade ago. That's set to change with Logan Lucky, a heist movie starring Channing Tatum that filmed several scenes at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday. It's scheduled to wrap up filming next week.

But unlike the 2006 Will Ferrell comedy, NASCAR this time will be "on the inside of the joke" when the film hits theaters next fall, NASCAR vice president of entertainment marketing Zane Stoddard told USA TODAY Sports.

"We wanted to make sure it was the antithesis of Talladega Nights," said Stoddard, who is also an executive producer on the film. Enter Tatum, director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) and producer Mark Johnson (Breaking Bad, Rain Man), who came to NASCAR with a script in hand and wanted the sanctioning body's assistance to make the film as realistic as possible. The plot is an Ocean's Eleven-type heist – Soderbergh also directed that film – in which Charlotte is robbed using an underground hydraulic tube system (which exists in the movie but not in real life).

In addition to Tatum, other stars include Daniel Craig, Seth MacFarlane, Hilary Swank, Katherine Heigl, Adam Driver, and Riley Keough. One of the highlights for NASCAR fans will be six driver cameos in the movie. Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch play West Virginia state troopers, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano are security guards, Kyle Larson is a limo driver, and Ryan Blaney is a delivery boy. Though the movie isn't about NASCAR, the sport is used as the background for the plot. And that's actually a good thing when thinking of the comparison to Ocean's Eleven, Stoddard said. USA Today