A pink what?

Circled around three times to figure out what this was.  The first time all I saw was a long, thin pink something.  The thought passed through my mind that maybe the snake is pink because of it having been cooked on the hot pavement, like shrimp.

This snake is known as a red racer, a coachwhip and locally I was told its also called a bubblegum.  Its a good snake as it will eat rattle snakes!  But, to me, its still a snake.  EEEK!