LSU football coach Les Miles is trading the football field for the racetrack this weekend.Miles will be the grand marshall at the International Hot Rod Association’s Mardi Gras Nationals drag race that takes place Friday through Sunday at the State Capitol Raceway.Stars of the three professional racing classes, Top Fuel, Pro Modified and Pro Stock, will come to the Raceway to compete for an individual class purse, as well as points to become the world champion at the season’s end.  The Nationals was given a Mardi Gras theme, and on the Saturday of the event, IHRA plans to have a parade with floats, beads and a crawfish boil.”Mardi Gras is such a Louisiana tradition,” said Larry Crum, IHRA media and publicity manager. “We wanted to bring that kind of excitement and flair to the race.”The Mardi Gras Nationals is also hosting an LSU Student Night beginning at 6 p.m. Friday. Students who show their LSU ID will get admission for $10. General admission for Friday night is $35 for adults. All tickets include free parking and a pit pass, which takes fans backstage to watch the drivers tune their vehicles and get autographs, photos and merchandise. “We know how big LSU is down there,” Crum said. “We want to get students involved. With the economy the way it is, we wanted to help students out, giving them something to do. We hope the LSU community comes out.”Nicolas Duchamp, political science senior, said he thinks giving students a discount on ticket prices is a great idea that supports education by supporting students.”Having discounted prices is a way to help their company, but it’s a way to help students do what they enjoy,” Duchamp said. Gary Carter, the general manager of the State Capitol Raceway, said the idea for the LSU Student Night was a collaborative idea between the Raceway and IHRA, hoping to give students the opportunity to come to the event even on a tight budget.”Just like LSU football has its tailgaters, the racers bring their motor homes and families,” Carter said. “It’s a family-type event where people can be outdoors and watch a car go from 0 to 300 mph in seconds. The Top Fuel cars generate as much force as an earthquake.” In addition to the LSU Student Night taking place Friday of the event, Les Miles will stand as the grand marshall, opening the Mardi Gras and racing festivities Saturday with his family at his side. Miles used to drag race as a young man growing up in Ohio.”I can pop a clutch as good as the next,” Miles said in an IHRA news release. “I enjoy the speed and the mechanical strategy.”In addition to the professional racers, the Mardi Gras Nationals will host the sportsman competitors and the “Night of Fire” on Saturday, which features the ground-shaking jet semi of Bob Motz and the blazing jet bike of Kevin Martin.”It’s exciting to see a big semi with a jet engine on the back of it shooting flames 25 feet,” Crum said. This is one of the Raceway’s first big events since its new owner took over about three years ago. The track, which was built in 1968, used to host the Cajun Nationals drag race back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but it fell on hard times when bigger tracks opened around the country. Carter said the Louisiana lifestyle of being outdoors gave the track owners and supporters confidence to “bring back something to this area that had been lost.” Now the Raceway can seat 8,000 people, but because of the pre-event interest shown, Carter said they may only have standing room for the Mardi Gras Nationals.”It’s all about having a dream of something that was lost and trying to recover it,” Carter said. “It’s kind of like the old field of dreams — do it, and they will come.”—-Contact Mary Walker Baus at [email protected]