Anecdotes

Cal, Ricky, and Girard were all introduced during driver introductions at the 2005 UAW Ford 500 at Talladega. Ricky and Cal were cheered, but when Girard was introduced as a driver from France driving the Perrier car, the entire crowd started booing without any prompting.

Producers pitched the movie idea to studios as: "Six words: Will Ferrell as a NASCAR driver."

The song in the film named "Goodbye Cowboy" was written and performed by Will Ferrell's father, Lee Ferrell.

Wonder Bread, Old Spice, and Perrier were not charged for their product placement in the movie. Old Spice and Wonder Bread promoted the movie through back-end deals, while Perrier was not required to take any action despite its presence in the movie. In addition, Will Ferrell showed up to many public appearances in his Wonder Bread uniform at no additional charge to the company. Other product placements shown in the movie were: Powerade, Coca Cola, Domino's, Nextel, Nascar, Valvoline, Budweiser, Lowe's, Ford, Sprint, Applebee's, Good Year, and Fig Newton.

The young woman who plays the artist during the brunch scene at Jean Girard's (Sacha Baron Cohen's) house is actually the artist of that painting. She was commissioned to do the painting and was then asked if she would play the artist in the film.