Thousands of NASCAR fans who turned up for Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 were shocked to realize that the lively country-rock band playing featured a familiar face: Kevin Costner on lead vocals.

“There were double-takes,” he said after the show at the Daytona International Speedway. “They get into the music without knowing.”

The actor – dressed in faded jeans, sunglasses and white button-down with rolled-up sleeves – and his band Modern West played a 50-minute set of mostly original songs, capped off by a lively rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.”

Making the night even more special? The actor’s wife, Christine, was in the audience with the couple’s 14-month-old son, Cayden, who watched his dad perform live for the first time. “It was magic,” he said.

Still Costner – who stars in and produced the upcoming Swing Vote, featuring a cameo from racing icon Richard Petty – said he’s happy to leave racing to the professionals.

“I ride bareback with buffalo and do my own stunts in movies that maybe some people wouldn’t do at all, but I’ve never had the penchant for speed,” said the actor, who still owns the Mustang convertible his character drove in Bull Durham. “In high school … nobody wanted to go with me. I was Twenty-Mile-An-Hour Costner.”

Modern West will continue to tour and will release a CD in October. (For more info, check out their Web site.) In the meantime, he’s focused on his youngest son.

“I can’t take my eyes off of him,” he said. “I’m anxious to see what kind of a person he can grow into.”

Splash, Source