Nascar Race Today

With his top 20 finish at Talladega on Sunday, NASCAR driver Josh Wise took the Dogecoin community one step closer "to the moon."

Wise drove the Dogecoin-sponsored No. 98 Ford Fusion, complete with an image of a Shiba Inu, at Talladega Speedway and even rose to the top five within the final 25 laps.

"There was a last lap where I had a really great run coming to the white flag and had a few guys pushing me from behind," Wise said. "The No. 18 car kind of cut across the front of me and I had to let off to keep from basically wrecking him and probably 15 of us others including myself, so it kind of killed our momentum and we ended up 20 ^th but I thought we had a really good shot at a top 10 or top 5 there up until that point."

Wise inspired many first-time NASCAR watchers from the Dogecoin community. Dogecoin is a digital currency, and there is a very active community of Dogecoin users on the link-sharing website Reddit. Since the initiative to fund Wise's car first began, the driver has become familiar with Dogecoin and Reddit, even doing a few AMA's (Ask Me Anything) and interacting directly with the fans.

"What made it cool was just the support of the community and the excitement around it," Wise said. "That's pretty unique from a sponsor."

As for whether another Dogecoin-sponsored car is in his future, Wise kept the option open.

"We're trying to get that sponsorship on a consistent basis, you know, and that's really going to take our team to the next level as far as being competitive," Wise said. "Whether that's with Dogecoin or Reddit communities or however we get that, that's definitely what we're looking for."