Peters Township student ready to sing at NASCAR event
Many of those in attendance Nov. 5 at Texas Motor Speedway will have their earplugs in ready to ward off high-level decibels during the race.
But they want to make sure their ears are clear for the day’s entertainment.
Peters Township High School sophomore Lexi DiLucia has been invited to sing at the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge race, which airs at 3:30 p.m. on NBC. She is scheduled to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “Deep in the Heart of Texas” and “God Bless America” at the Forth Worth venue, which has a seating capacity of more than 180,000, before the NASCAR Xfinity Series race.
That represents a lot of people, but Lexi, 16, has experience with large crowds, having sung at PNC Park for Pittsburgh Pirates games the past two seasons.
“I just had a lot of fun with it,” she said about the experience, “and I tried to stay calm.”
After submitting a recording to the Pirates, Lexi was selected to sing prior to a Tuesday night game the first time around. Unfortunately, it was postponed because of rain.
“That was devastating, because a lot of my friends were going to come,” she recalled. “Then the next day, it was during school, so a lot of people couldn’t come. But I still had my family there for me.”
Lexi must have nailed it, because she returned this year on a Sunday to perform both the national anthem and “God Bless America,” the latter of which was televised and captured accordingly for posterity. A copy made its way to race organizers, and now she is on her way to Texas.
She will have a nationwide audience. The O’Reilly race comes toward the end of the NASCAR Xfinity Series season, and fans of left turns will want to see which drivers make further headway toward the series championship.
In addition to having her voice ready, she has a few other preparations to make.
“They need to know the length of her national anthem,” her mother, Jen, said, “because of the flyover.”
Yes, according to the pre-race schedule, aircraft from the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Addison, Texas, will roar through the sky above as Lexi is wrapping up with “the home of the brave?”
Right before that, of course, is the really tricky part for anyone who’s given “The Star-Spangled Banner” a try.
“It’s a hard song, but I’ve sung it so many times that I’ve become comfortable. Usually with that song, the lower notes are harder for me, because I start at a low key, so then the belt is easy,” Lexi said about the “o’er the land of the free” line.
She and her family will leave for the Texas a couple of days before the race, which means she’ll miss a bit of school. But given her performance, that should be OK.
“Currently, I have all A’s,” she reported. “That’s the important stuff.”
Also important to her is performing on stage, as she has been in numerous productions with assorted theater companies, including a part in “Annie” at the Benedum Theater when she was 10.
And so when the time comes, she’d like to study musical theater.
“I love to dance. I love to sing. I love to act,” Lexi said. “That’s my dream, and if it doesn’t work out, I can always do it on the side. But I can’t see myself doing anything else.”