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Five Flags Track Chaplain Wayne Butts Faithful Servant to Pensacola’s High Banks

By Chuck Corder

Fate always finds fans at Five Flags Speedway.

About five years ago, Liberty Church Associate Pastor Wayne Butts made a date night with his wife Sue, encouraging her to see some races.

It was a special pastime Sue enjoyed as child with her father, who she had lost a few years back.

So the couple went that evening and a day later Wayne ran into Fred Zobel, who had given the race invocation the night before.

As a man of the ministry himself, Butts will tell you that that night wasn’t so much fate as faith. For the next year, Butts would occasionally fill in on race nights for the often-traveling Zobel until Zobel finally said, “You just go ahead and do it.�

Butts knew the marriage of two of his favorite things was a no-brainer.

“I’ve been a longtime race fan, and I’m a longtime people fan,� said Butts, a Mobile native who worked an ambulance for Mobile International Speedway in the 1970s. “Putting the two together, it gives me a place to hang out and do things for others.�

And here’s what Butts wants others to know. His blessings don’t just begin and end with the pre-ceremony prayer.

“I really want people to know Five Flags has a chaplain available,� he said. “The Bible tells us rejoice with those that rejoice, mourn with those that mourn.

“A lot of things happen at track. I just want to be a presence. I don’t want anybody to think that I’m going to be in their face or anything. I want to celebrate in victory and walk in the difficult times if that’s necessary, and show the love of God at the same time.�

A scary moment prompted Butts to do just that at Sunday’s season opener.

During the Super Stocks, Greg Young got driven into the Turn 1 wall. Silence fell over the speedway as track officials tried to unhinge Young’s car while emergency personnel attempted to safely remove Young from the car.

After he was put in the ambulance, Butts rode with Young to the hospital ensuring everything was OK.

“He’s an unbelievable asset for a racetrack to have,� Five Flags General Manager Tim Bryant said of Butts.

For his part, Butts knows his selfless act was just what God had called him to do.

“People need steady presence in those difficult times,� h said. “I can certainly represent our God, who is a steady presence. I can help to offer courage and strength. Even in a situation with the family there, those times when you’re facing something you don’t know quite what to do.

“It’s spiritual. That’s what God has called me to do best.�

“I’m there not to be forceful or Bible-thump,� Butts said, “but to show the love of God that is real and profound where people are living life. What a blessing to have that opportunity.

“I’m blessed probably more with the people I rub elbows with than I could ever be blessing for them. We all need love. We all need to be ministered to. We all need to experience the Good News. God offers that to us.

“He is a God that cares, a God that loves. I just try and walk out the gospel well as I can. Why not do that while enjoying the sport I enjoy so much?�

A lesson as closely connected as fate and faith.

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