The trek up from Pedro to the Convention Center took a tad longer than we expected this morning, and missed arriving in time to catch Jay Leno's arrival onstage in a Z06 Daytona pace car, which he'll pilot during the next running of the 500. The paint job was stupid. Mark LaNeve played straight man to Leno's goofball, and after saying that he thought bi-fuel vehicles would go over well in California because he has a lot of friends that're bi, he went for the biggie in the run-up to the launch of the new-and-ugly Suburban and Yukon XL.
"So, what do you have if I want to take seven or eight guys up to Brokeback Mountain? They're big guys." We personally thought this was totally, completely rad. It obviously took LaNeve by surprise, which we liked. Jay Leno! Onstage in front of the auto industry, insinuating episodes of flannel-ripping man-on-man-on-man-on-man-on-man action would occur if LaNeve hooked him up with a Suburban! LaNeve looked like the heel he seems to be to us. If only we'd had the presence of mind to walk up to him and said, "Hey Marky. Dave from Jalopnik here. Wanna go try out the back of that Hummer over there?" Then again, even if we were gay, we wouldn't touch LaNeve with a forty-foot driveshaft.
Carlist's got a summary of the whole presentation if you're so inclined.
Jay Leno Makes Mark LaNeve Squirm [Carlist]