The last time Daniel A. Dailey was at Pocono Raceway, he was a young fan.

Now Dailey, serving as sergeant major of the Army, returned to the place he last visited as a spectator on Sunday representing the military at the Overton’s 400.“For me, personally, this is a little walk down memory lane,” Dailey said. “I even worked up here as a kid.”My, how things have changed.Serving as an ambassador to the United States military, Dailey started his day with a pace car ride around the track before touring the garage, where he was able to meet and greet various teams and drivers. Dailey also attended the drivers’ meeting before waving the green flag for Sunday’s race.“When you’re a little kid, working up here, you never think of anything like that,” Dailey said. “But I always like to tell our soldiers, life takes you where you want to go. It’s all up to you.”Dailey’s primary focus Sunday was on his capacity serving the military.“We’re going to have 130, I believe, roughly, young men and women enlist into the military today,” Dailey said. “The majority of them, obviously, are going to be in the Army, because we’re the biggest service.“But, how much more American can you get than NASCAR? This is great. We’ve had a long-standing relationship with NASCAR in the military, and we greatly appreciate their support, especially today. They’re really good to us, like military appreciation days, they do those all the time.”A Palmerton native, Dailey became the 15th sergeant major of the Army in January 2015, a position earned through a lifetime of dedication and hard work.“I grew up in Palmerton, and I was taught, that if you want something in life, you gotta work hard for it, because nothing’s free,” Dailey said. “I was also taught, from a very young age from my father that military service was something that was very honorable and is something that he felt very strongly about. He wanted his boys to serve.“I think just being from this area, watching the people work really hard every day, the things they do, really instilled in me the values I needed to become successful.”While Dailey enjoyed his pit stop at Pocono, he acknowledged the break was short-lived.“I have to get back down to the Pentagon. If you watch the news, we’re a pretty busy organization around the world,” Dailey said. “When I tell people the scale of what we do on a day-to-day basis … we have a 187,000 soldiers in a 140 countries as we stand here right now. So, it’s a lot to go on. Very busy. Back to the Pentagon, back to work.“I got some travel coming up here very shortly, headed over to the Pacific, then over to the European Theater. And then we have to go check on our team over there in Iraq and Afghanistan later this year.”Dailey was joined on Sunday by his wife, Holly, also a Palmerton native, and son, Dakota. The opportunity to spend time with his family, and do so on behalf of the military, NASCAR and Pocono Raceway, is something he doesn’t take for granted.“We can’t be more proud to be here with NASCAR, and with Pocono Raceway and of course the greater community,” Dailey said about the experience. “And it’s a great opportunity to do two things: One, for the great people of America to watch a sport they love, and watch and be free, and that freedom provided by our soldiers.“And they’ve invited us here to spend a little bit of time together, and I think there’s nothing better than to salute the flag today, when we do the national anthem, and then watch a great American sport and look around and see the good time and smiles on my solders’ faces, because they get a little break from the hardships from what they do on a day-to-day basis, and the realities of life they have to deal with around the world.“They can sit back and appreciate some of the things they work so hard for, and that’s in a free America.”