Bob Headlund of Stewart Haas Racing, left, talks shop with Kansas University mechanical engineering students, from left, Cameron Bryant, Baldwin sophomore; Hans Walther, Olathe sophomore; and Phillip Twist, Okmulgee, Okla., junior, as the four look under the hood of NASCAR driver Ryan Newman's show car Wednesday. Both the Army ROTC and the engineering school students, who also displayed their Formula SAE car, spent part of the day promoting and recruiting outside the Burge Union. See the 6News video report at LJWorld.com.

Pickup truck. Station wagon. NASCAR Sprint Cup stock car? Students walking on the Kansas University campus noticed something a little out of the ordinary in the Burge Union parking lot. NASCAR driver Ryan Newman’s stock car, which is sponsored by the U.S. Army, was parked in front of the union to help draw attention to KU’s ROTC program.

“The race car does help us recruit quite a bit,” said Derrick Grabener, U.S. Army drill sergeant.

“Everybody’s interested in fast cars. It’s got the big Army logo on it. People want to know what the Army has to do with NASCAR.”

And Bob Headlund, Stuart Haas Racing, was on hand to answer questions about the car.

“It brings students over to our stand and helps them come check out what we have,” said KU ROTC student Cortney Coke. “It lets them talk to actual people in the Army so if they don’t want to do ROTC and maybe enlist, they have representatives here for them to talk to as well.”

Newman’s race car wasn’t the only one on display. Parked a few feet away was a car designed by nearly 30 KU engineering students and volunteers, built almost completely from scratch. Engineering student Anthony Gatti was out showing off that car, which looks like a miniature Formula 1 racer.

Gatti said Jayhawk Motorsports races against up to 120 teams across the country, from California to Detroit. The team is currently designing a hybrid race car this year.

Newman will drive his car in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Price Chopper 400 at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Kansas Speedway.