The MOU, which can be accessed at http://bit.ly/EPA-NASCAR-mou, will pave the way for other opportunities and areas of focus for EPA and NASCAR such as sourcing more sustainable concessions at NASCAR events, expanding the use of DfE-labeled chemical products, conserving water, and continuing to grow the promotion and practice of all applicable types of recycling. Through E3, NASCAR and the EPA will work together to foster the adoption of green approaches, address sustainability challenges, and seize opportunities. A continuously greener sport – and NASCAR’s supplier network – will have positive economic and environmental impacts that extend far beyond the race track in the communities that NASCAR and the EPA serve.

NASCAR, in partnership with industry, environmental and academic groups, will also begin to evaluate the potential for adoption of green products as labeled under the EPA Design for the Environment program as having met rigorous environmental standards. NASCAR Green is also planned to be employed as a platform for enhancing awareness among NASCAR fans and business-to-business partners of the benefits of using DfE-labeled products in our homes, communities and at work. The MOU is based on the spirit of collaboration and does not address regulatory issues.

“This collaboration is a statement of NASCAR’s commitment to green innovation and our role as a leader in sustainability,” said Mike Lynch, NASCAR managing director of green innovation. “This partnership will provide new resources that will allow our industry to create innovative environmental education and awareness platforms while continuing to build on our strong momentum in reducing the environmental impact of our sport.”

“Because NASCAR is such a thrilling sport followed by millions of passionate fans and business-to-business partners, it can be a powerful platform to raise environmental awareness, drive the adoption of safer products by more Americans, and accelerate the greening of our economy to protect the planet,” said Jim Jones, EPA’s acting assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP). “The EPA and NASCAR partnership attests to the notable inroads that NASCAR has already made into the arena of environmental stewardship – through multiple recycling initiatives for waste and automotive fluids, to greener fuel choices.”

Last month, NASCAR issued a ‘white paper’ detailing the various programs that have made NASCAR a leader in green initiatives across all sports. The data in “The Sports Leader in Sustainability”^ illustrated the steps NASCAR has taken in educating fans, reducing the sport’s environmental impact and validating green technologies – both on and off the track. The report can be accessed at http://bit.ly/green-white-4-19.

^ Report not endorsed by the EPA.

CONCORD, N.C.—NASCAR is the first motorsports organization to join Beyond Sport, a global entity that promotes the use of sport in effecting social change.

NASCAR has accepted an invitation to join Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, the National Football League and the Women’s National Basketball Association as part of Beyond Sport’s broader global organization.

“We’re obviously very honored to be a part of what is going on at Beyond Sport,” NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France said at the announcement of the alliance. “The idea is that leagues, teams, athletes come together to share best practices in what they’re doing.

“It puts us on a big stage. We’re excited about it because of what all the teams and the individual drivers are doing (in the charitable realm). Frankly, it matches perfectly with directionally where we’re going. We’re investing a lot with kids, as you know. We’re certainly focused on the environment and giving back to different communities.”

Beyond Sport derives financial support from the corporate community, with contributed funds going to support its initiatives. In addition, the organization provides a way for representatives of the member leagues to meet at summits and share best practices.

NASCAR, for example, is at the vanguard of recycling efforts among major sports. The NHL is a leader in using tons of leftover food from its events to feed the hungry.

“If you look around our sport, and you consider all that our drivers do — the teams, the tracks, and our sponsors — collectively, the impact that they make in giving back to the community is really amazing,” said Steve Phelps, NASCAR’s chief marketing officer and senior vice president.

“Beyond Sport will give us an opportunity to share best practices with other leagues and brands around the world, and most importantly, to have us be able to share what we’re doing in these areas. I know the people at the NASCAR Foundation, NASCAR Green and NASCAR Diversity are thrilled at the opportunity to work with Beyond Sport folks, and I’m sure that the sport as a whole and the broader industry will benefit from this new relationship.”

WHAT NEW AERO RULES?
Admittedly, Sprint Cup drivers haven’t raced in heavy traffic since NASCAR mandated shorter side skirts for the cars, but in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race practice and qualifying Friday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, most drivers felt little or no difference in the way their cars performed.

NASCAR required crews to trim the side skirts on their cars one inch on the right side and an inch and a half on the left, thereby increasing the ground clearance. The result is a decrease in downforce and stability, though the difference isn’t profound.

“I think there was a little bit of a different feel, sure” said Kyle Busch, who won the pole for the All-Star Race. “Any time you take downforce off a car, you’ll feel it a little bit. Surprisingly, though, we didn’t see the lap times slow down as much as we anticipated maybe.

“Based off practice speeds, we ran the same practice time last year to this year. It might just be the progression — or the tire, because the tire’s a different tire, too, and maybe that played a little bit into it. But, overall, it’s a little different feel, but it’s not a big swing.”

Michael Waltrip Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. thought it was tough to make a comparison with previous trips to Charlotte because of changing track conditions and the continued development of the current-generation racecar.

“To be honest with you, I didn’t feel a big difference from what we’ve been racing,” Truex told the NASCAR Wire Service. “Obviously, we haven’t been here since last year. I felt like the track was a little bit different than it was here last year — getting a little rougher — and I think it’s lost a little bit of grip, too.

“With those little differences out there, it’s hard to compare. Our cars are so much different than they were here a year ago, as far as our stuff at MWR, so it’s really hard to compare apples to apples, (but) to be honest, I didn’t really feel a big difference from what we’ve been feeling the rest of the season.”

Carl Edwards, a proponent of reducing downforce, said he felt no difference at all.

“I didn’t run around any other cars or anything, but I didn’t notice anything,” Edwards said. “If they wouldn’t have talked about it a little bit and told me before practice what was going on, I wouldn’t have known — so no effect from where I sit.”

NEW APPROACH TO PIT CREWS
That Jimmie Johnson’s crew won the NASCAR Sprint Crew Challenge on Thursday night was hardly surprising. More remarkable was the complete turnover of the five-time champion’s over-the-wall gang.

No member of Johnson’s 2009 and 2010 title teams is still on the crew in any of the skill positions. Does that mean the template for a pit crew member has changed in the last three years?

“Yeah, just like the sport in so many other respects, it continues to evolve,” Johnson told the NASCAR Wire Service. “For a long time, due to budget reasons and the structure of the budget for our organization, we worked hard to have over-the-wall guys that also had some responsibilities in the shop. (Current car chief) Ron Malec was a tire carrier for a long time.

“We were getting our money’s worth out of Ron week-in and week-out. Today, it’s changed. The physical demand on the road crew guys, working on the car three days in advance — here when the garage opens, when it closes — it takes away a little bit. Pit road is so competitive that we felt we needed to have just specific over-the-wall guys.”

Crew chief Chad Knaus actually held mini camps for prospective pit crew members, drawing from college sports.

“Our whole search started and took us some time to get everybody in the right positions and get the experience they need, but now it’s really paying off,” Johnson said.

CONCORD, N.C. – Kyle Busch and his crew had all three elements necessary to win the pole for Saturday night’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race — speed on the racetrack, speed on and off pit road and speed from the pit crew during the mandatory green-flag stop at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

With a total time of one minute, 59.112 seconds (136.006 mph) over three laps and the pit stop, Busch edged Ryan Newman in Friday’s time trials for the top starting spot in the race with a $1 miilion first prize.

Newman (135.202 mph) went out second and was the only driver other than Busch to post a sub-two-minute qualifying effort (1:59.821). Fastest in Friday’s practice, Busch was the last driver to make a qualifying attempt under the format unique to the All-Star Race.

Denny Hamlin (134.811 mph) claimed the third starting position, followed by Cup points leader Greg Biffle (134.529 mph) and Kevin Harvick (134.304 mph).

Busch won his third All-Star pole but has never won the race. Neither has his team, Joe Gibbs Racing. Busch started from the top spot last year, but Carl Edwards took home the $1 million.

Saturday’s race will be contested in five segments, four of 20 laps each followed by a 10-lap dash to the finish. The winners of the first four segments enter the pits in the top four spots for a mandatory stop before the final segment.

“We unloaded with a really fast racecar today,” Busch said. “The guys made some minor changes to it to kind of feel it out and make it better where we could. The guys did a great job there with the pit stop, coming down pit road and changing four (tires) and then getting back out there and coming back to the line pretty quick.

“The rules change every year, so I guess this year you’ve got to make sure you win a segment, so you can at least have a shot at starting up front for the final segment.”

Coming to the checkered flag, Kasey Kahne lost control of his No. 5 Chevrolet and slammed into the Turn 4 wall. Kahne did not post a qualifying time and will start from the rear of the field in a backup car.

Kahne was on sticker tires after the mandatory pit stop.

“I was just trying to get all I could and went a little too far,” Kahne said.

AJ Allmendinger won the pole for Saturday’s Sprint Showdown, which will send its top two finishers to the main event. Allmendinger covered the 1.5-mile distance in 28.057 seconds (192.465 mph) to beat Martin Truex Jr. (191.049 mph) for the top starting spot in the qualifying race.

“For me, it was the perfect lap,” said Allmendinger, who ran within inches of the Turn 4 wall on the money lap. “More than anything, the car stuck to the racetrack. We struggled a little bit in practice. The (car) had speed in it, but it wasn’t really comfortable.

“So (crew chief) Todd Gordon and the guys went to work, and I felt like that was as perfect as I could run a lap.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (191.002 mph) will start third. In addition to the top two finishers in the Showdown, the winner of the Sprint Fan Vote will transfer to the All-Star Race.

CONCORD, N.C. – Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman are friends — at least they were.

As late as 2008, the drivers were teammates at Penske Racing, and in the first race of that season, Busch pushed Newman to victory in the Daytona 500.

In light of their past relationship, Busch took offense at Newman’s comments after last Saturday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, an event that ended with Newman’s No. 39 Stewart-Haas crew — specifically gas man Andy Rueger — confronting the driver of the No. 51 Phoenix Racing Chevrolet.

Busch blew a tire and hit the wall off Turn 2 late in the race. Newman checked up behind Busch and was turned into the inside wall by Aric Almirola. Both Busch and Newman brought their cars to pit road for repairs.

Newman left his pit stall first. Busch burned rubber through Newman’s adjacent stall, producing a cloud of smoke, while several of Newman’s crew members were still in the box. After the race, Busch bumped Newman’s car on pit road, claiming he was removing his helmet and didn’t realize how close he was to Newman’s Chevy.

Newman didn’t buy the explanation, which he termed “a lie.” Newman also referred to Busch’s “chemical imbalance,” absent any medical evidence to support that assertion.

“Newman and I were friends,” said Busch, who on Tuesday was fined $50,000 and placed on NASCAR probation until July 25 for reckless driving on pit road. “We were great teammates. And he needs to check his trophy case on that Daytona 500 trophy that I helped him get years ago.

“We were always great friends. There was no need for his comments afterwards. He knew his Southern 500 didn’t go the way he wanted it to, and at the end of the night everyone is hot and pissed off. The Daytona 500 is a big race. Darlington 500 is just as big of an event, and a lot of people get excited for it. I wanted to finish in the top 10 and we didn’t get that top-10 finish. So it was a tough night and it all went bad in a hurry.”

In defense of his burnout through the Newman pit, Busch said he was trying to avoid the loss of a lap.

“We just wanted to finish on the lead lap,” Busch said. “So I was trying to get off pit road as quick as I could. Newman, he left his pit a good 10 seconds before us, and I didn’t think there was any reason to think that any of the crew guys were in danger.

“One guy (Rueger) has a problem with it, and it just escalated from there.”

FINAL SEGMENT STRATEGY
Given the importance of track position for the final 10-lap segment of Saturday night’s Sprint All-Star Race, drivers are unlikely to take tires during a mandatory pit stop before the dash for the $1 million top prize.

Greg Biffle says he expects the winner of the race to come from the first three rows on the final restart — whether a driver has new rubber or not.

“There’s no mystery to what’s going to happen,” Biffle told the NASCAR Wire Service. “Track position is what’s going to win the race, and we’ll see what this track thinks of new tires. As the track ages, as the tire is maybe a little bit different . . . the same tire, but maybe it acts a little different on the racetrack — so after 20 laps, we’ll see how important a new tire is.

“Maybe it doesn’t really matter that much, so we’ll have some practice and a little bit of the race to figure that out — but you’ve got to be at the front at the end. You’re not going to win from the fourth, fifth or sixth row just because you have new tires, I don’t think. Anything can happen, but it’s going to be track position, and maybe it’s two tires, maybe it’s no tires (on the final stop).”

NO RACING FOR GEORGIA REPUBLICAN?
Jack Kingston, a Republican Congressman from Georgia, has joined the crusade of Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) to bar the Department of Defense from sports-related advertising for the military.

McCollum and Kingston co-sponsored an amendment to the 2013 defense appropriations bill that would end sports sponsorships by the military. The bill, including the amendment, already has passed the House Appropriations Committee.

The bill is a long way from becoming law, with a full House vote and passage by the Senate still required, but the measure could jeopardize the National Guard sponsorship of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the U.S. Army’s backing of Ryan Newman.

Kingston, who has never attended a NASCAR race, said the Pentagon had a year since McCollum introduced a similar measure last year to prove the value of sports sponsorships — and had not done so.

Perhaps Kingston hasn’t talked to the right people. Lt. Gen. Benjamin Freakley of the U.S. Army Accessions Command (which oversees recruiting) said last year that the Army’s NASCAR program had produced more than 46,000 bona fide recruiting leads in 2010 from its NASCAR program alone.

Earnhardt suggested that the amendment’s sponsors should do more homework before drawing conclusions. He’s also surprised a Republican from the South hasn’t made a play for the “NASCAR Dads” audience.

“Yeah, just because he’s a Republican from Georgia, he should have been to a NASCAR race by now,” Earnhardt quipped.

AMBROSE PROUD OF A CHEVY?
Marcos Ambrose drives a Ford in the Sprint Cup Series, but that doesn’t mean the Tasmanian driver can’t be proud of an Australian product that will make its way into NASCAR’s top division next year.

Chevrolet recently announced its 2013 model for the Cup series, a rear-wheel drive SS performance sedan that owes its origins to such vehicles as the Camaro and upcoming VF Commodore, a product of the Holden subsidiary of General Motors in Australia.

“It’s the wrong make, so I want to be a little careful of what I say here, but I’m really proud to think that Australia can produce, with their people and infrastructure, a world-standard car that Chevrolet would like to bring to the U.S. and sell here,” Ambrose told the NASCAR Wire Service.

“I’ve grown up driving rear-wheel-drive cars, manual cars — it’s just a standard thing out there. It’s a world-class product, and I look forward to racing against them and beating them, but it’s definitely made a buzz in Australia.”

Eldora Speedway will once again play host to the all-star dirt Late Model race featuring more than 25 world renowned drivers as they battle for dirt supremacy on the half-mile clay oval where HBO Pay-Per-View® will present the event LIVE in high-definition to the entire nation. Net proceeds from the telecast will support Feed The Children, a U.S.-based charity that domestically has helped more than 365,000 families since 2009 through its Americans Feeding Americans Caravan.

The eighth annual Prelude To The Dream joins racing luminaries from all disciplines at one track, on one night as they pilot 2,300-pound dirt Late Model stock cars capable of putting out more than 800 horsepower. It is One Perfect Night.

Tony Kanaan of the IZOD IndyCar Series will again compete against Danica Patrick, who in 2012 has made the full transition from IndyCar to NASCAR. They’ll rub fenders with straight-liners Ron Capps and Cruz Pedregon of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Dirt regulars Steve Kinser and Donny Schatz, who have collectively won 24 World of Outlaws championships, will race for the first time in dirt Late Models. All will join NASCAR stars such as Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Bobby Labonte and many others, including a band of brothers:the Busch brothers – Kurt and Kyle – and the Dillon brothers – Austin and Ty.

The live, commercial-free, high-definition broadcast will begin at 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT) with an immediate replay. The Prelude To The Dream has a suggested retail price of $24.95 and is available to more than 92 million pay-per-view homes. HBO Pay-Per-View is the leading supplier of event programming in the pay-per-view industry. Ordering information and up-to-the minute racing information is available at either www.PreludeToTheDream.org or www.HBO.com. Updates can also be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PreludeToDream and on Twitter at twitter.com/PreludeToDream(@PreludeToDream).

The 2012 edition of the Prelude To The Dream includes hot laps, qualifying, heat races and a 40-lap feature with double-file “shootout style” restarts. New participants include Patrick, Kinser, Schatz and Ty Dillon, who will join Stewart, Capps, Kenny Wallace and Kenny Schrader as drivers who have participated in every Prelude To The Dream since 2005, where Wallace was the inaugural winner.

“We have the most diverse group of drivers we’ve ever had for the Prelude, and for the first time, the Prelude will be broadcast in high-definition,” said Stewart, owner of Eldora Speedway and a three-time winner of the Prelude To The Dream. “This year’s event is going to be a can’t-miss show. We’ve added 10 laps to the feature and partnered with a great charity in Feed The Children. You’re going to see some intense racing by everyone, including some drivers completely out of their comfort zone. We’ll all be racing for a trophy, but also to make an impact with the more than 16 million children who are at risk of going hungry right here in America.”

For the top-10 finishers in the Prelude To The Dream, Feed The Children will send a food truck to each driver’s hometown or city of their choice.

“This is an excellent opportunity to bring attention to the nationwide problem of child hunger by working with these world-class drivers,” said Rick England, chairman, Feed The Children board of directors. “Their efforts will allow more families to put food on the table and help us provide a solution to those hard hit by the current economy.”

The seven previous Prelude To The Dream events have collectively raised more than $3.5 million. With each year’s event gaining significant stature and mainstream interest, Stewart’s ultimate goal is to have the 2012 Prelude To The Dream raise $1 million, with the proceeds benefitting Feed The Children.

“It’s an ambitious goal,” admits Stewart, “but if we don’t set the bar high, we’re not pushing ourselves the way we should. That’s our goal, and me and everybody else associated with this event is going to do everything we can to meet that goal. Now, we just need everyone out there to purchase the event, enjoy all the action going on at Eldora, and know that their dollars are going to a very worthy cause.”

“Each year we are thrilled to bring the exciting live action from Eldora into living rooms across the country,” said Tammy Ross, Vice President, HBO Pay-Per-View & Sports. “This year’s benefitting organization, Feed The Children charities’ mission is that no child should go to bed hungry, and the HBO Pay-Per-View team is thrilled to bring the Prelude To The Dream to fans everywhere to help further that mission.”

With no points and no pressure, the Prelude To The Dream is a throwback race, allowing drivers to step back in time and compete for the reasons they all went racing in the first place – pride and a trophy. And they’ll do it on the same surface racing legends A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti competed on nearly 50 years ago.

For those who want to see the Prelude To The Dream in person, tickets are available online at www.EldoraSpeedway.com or by calling the track office (937) 338-3815. Act fast – the race has sold out in previous years.

DARLINGTON, S.C. — In one respect, the racecars being developed for the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup season will be on the racetrack next week — in the form of ideas that will be incorporated into the new models.

On Tuesday, NASCAR sent a technical bulletin to all Cup owners, crew chiefs and drivers, listing rule changes that will take effect as of May 16, in time for the Sprint All-Star Race.

Typically, NASCAR’s technical bulletins are more about housekeeping items and less about major changes to the competition package, but Tuesday’s bulletin, which contained a laundry list of rule changes in eight areas, was significant enough that crew chiefs immediately began booking wind tunnel time.

Of greatest interest was the shortening of the side skirts on the Cup cars, designed to create greater ground clearance. NASCAR also has mandated use of superspeedway-sized stationary air deflectors (commonly known as “shark fins”) on all tracks of two miles or more.

According to Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition, the rule changes were inspired by work on the 2013 car, with an eye toward raising the speeds at which a car will lift off and become airborne.

“In working on our 2013 car, there were some things that we worked on that we can apply to help with liftoff speeds, and one of them was the Daytona and Talladega back glass and (rear) deck fins for the two-mile and above tracks,” Pemberton said Saturday at Darlington Raceway.

“The other one was raising the clearance on the skirts an inch on the right and an inch and a half on the left. The majority of that was for safety.”

One byproduct of the shortening of the side skirts will be a loss of downforce and a possible decrease in the stability of the cars in traffic.

“In some places where they don’t get the (suspension) travel, it’ll reduce the downforce just a little bit,” Pemberton said. “It’s not a bad thing. It’s a marginal thing, but it does take some of the downforce off the cars.”

Just how much downforce the Cup cars will lose is an open question, and there’s no firm consensus among crew chiefs as to what the number will be, even though several teams already have tested the changes in wind tunnels and during a Goodyear tire test at New Hampshire earlier this week.

Most agree, however, that the cars will be somewhat more difficult to handle and that the changes might make it marginally easier for one car to pass another.

There’s also a consensus that the changes to the side skirts will force changes to the suspensions of the cars — particularly to the rear suspensions — as crew chiefs try to recreate the “seal” (or close proximity) between the side skirts and the pavement as a method to recover downforce.

As one crew chief told the NASCAR Wire Service on Saturday, “We’ve been working all year to keep the back of the car up; now we’ll have to work to get it down.”

Even if the loss of downforce is a corollary effect of a larger safety goal, it will be well received by many drivers.

“Hopefully that’s part of an evolution away from downforce and away from aerodynamic devices and toward the roots of what we’re doing here,” said Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards, an outspoken proponent of taking downforce away from the Cup cars and putting more control in the drivers’ hands.

“I think it’s really cool of them to do that.”

GOVERNOR FAVORS TWO DARLINGTON RACES
Darlington hasn’t hosted two Cup races in the same season since 2004, but it should surprise no one that South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley would support the return of another race to the Palmetto State.

“You have tons of families that love to come out to this race,” Haley said Saturday during an question-and-answer session in the Darlington media center. “You’ve got tons of people from across the country and world that watch this race.

“If we could turn around and bring a second one, we would in a minute, and I think the drivers would love that. But it’s their (NASCAR’s) schedule that we have to fight with, and they’ve got a busy one, but we absolutely would love two back.”

Haley comes from a house divided, at least where NASCAR is concerned. She and husband Michael Haley have different rooting interests.

“We have a split family,” Haley said. “I’m all excited about Danica Patrick — she’s my favorite. Michael is all excited about (Dale Earnhardt) Junior, and that’s his favorite, so we’ll see what happens.”

NASCAR WORKS WITH PRELUDE ON SCHEDULE
Tony Stewart’s annual charity race, The Prelude to the Dream at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, is scheduled for June 6. So is an afternoon of Sprint Cup testing at newly repaved Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa.

The two tracks are 480 miles apart, and many Cup drivers participate in Stewart’s dirt late model race, won last year by Clint Bowyer. To help with scheduling, NASCAR moved the start of the Pocono test session from 1 p.m. to noon ET.

The test will conclude at 4 p.m. instead of 5 p.m., allowing drivers plenty of time to fly to Eldora before the start of the Prelude.

DARLINGTON, S.C. — For Eric McClure, the jarring wreck that sidelined him from last Saturday’s Nationwide Series race at Talladega Superspeedway was a two-fold affirmation — first, of his desire to drive racecars for a living, and second, of the confidence he has in NASCAR equipment.

McClure was airlifted to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center, where he spent two nights under observation. The two primary concerns, McClure said, were internal bruising (which is still painful) and the concussion he suffered in the wreck.

The accident, however, hasn’t dulled his desire to race.

“No, I love to race,” McClure said. “Sometimes I question how good I am at it sometimes. Never had a doubt that I wanted to do it again. Obviously, when you’re in a situation like that and things are happening fast, and you’ve just been through something like that, you’re a human being and thousands of things run through your head.

“As far as questioning my desire to do this, I don’t. I look forward to going through the process that NASCAR has laid out, getting the right clearance when it’s time to come back, and at this point, when they do that, I look forward to doing it and racing again and trying to get better.”

McClure added somewhat facetiously that what he learned about the safety of the cars he drives may allow him to race harder when he returns to the track.

“I’m not worried about the racecar,” McClure said. “I’m not scared, especially now. I think that I’ve hit about as hard as you can hit. I never have been scared of the car. I joked with (teammates) Jeff Green and Mike Bliss just this week that maybe I can drive the car harder now, because I don’t have to worry about it because everything’s in place — the safety equipment is amazing.

“It’s just been a crazy thing. You can talk yourself into or out of anything, but if anything I think my confidence will be a little higher just from the safety initiatives and how safe our sport really is. It’s always dangerous, but it’s a lot safer than it ever has been.”

McClure and his wife have four daughters, ages 8 weeks to 5 years old. Family time has bolstered McClure in his time off the track.

There have also been unexpected benefits to the situation.

“I got to meet Jeff Gordon, and that was really cool,” McClure said. “I’ve never got to do that in the five years I’ve done this.”

EARNHARDT BACKS STEWART’S COMMENTS
After catching a piece of a late wreck and finishing 24th last Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, Tony Stewart was at his dead-pan, sarcastic best in a post-race question-and-answer session with reporters.

With a straight face, Stewart suggested that Sprint Cup drivers needed to wreck more cars, that part of the race could be run backward and that Talladega should consider reconfiguring the track as a figure eight to guarantee a demolition derby.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. understood the tone of Stewart’s comments and agreed with their underlying premise.

“What he said isn’t really how he feels — it was kind of a parody on the day,” Earnhardt said. “He feels strongly that it’s not good, and he thinks it should be better and could be better and thinks things should be changed and we should do the things differently as far as the plate package is concerned and the style of racing that we have there.

“I was disappointed in how the racing went myself, as far as how difficult it was to get the outside lane to move. There was just not as much passing as I anticipated. I like the pack racing, but we weren’t really able to challenge and make moves on each other like I anticipated happening.”

Earnhardt, who finished ninth, refrained from commenting on the racing after the event, primarily because his attitude was tempered by the performance of his racecar.

“I sort of side with Tony and the fact that I was disappointed in the style of racing, but I also didn’t have that great of a racecar, so I was holding back a little of my judgment due to the fact that my car just wasn’t competitive enough to do the things I wanted it to do,” Earnhardt said.

“Had it been more competitive, maybe I would have enjoyed the racing better. I wasn’t vocal at all about the racing, because I didn’t have the car to take out of the equation and say it was just the racing.”

PATRICK: ‘I JUST WANT TO FINISH’
After practicing both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup cars Friday at Darlington in preparation for her debut in both series at the 1.366-mile track, Danica Patrick summed up her hopes and expectations for Saturday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 in four words: “I just want to finish.”

“I definitely think getting through the night with a respectable night is what I’m hoping for in the Nationwide car, and as far as the Cup car . . . I just want to finish,” said Patrick, who was the slowest of 47 drivers in the first Cup practice session.

“I just want to finish, which is going to be a challenge, I think.”

Patrick got her baptism — otherwise known as a Darlington stripe — during her first run in the Nationwide car. In the first Cup practice, she hit the wall three more times.

“I’ve hit it four times now,” Patrick said before Happy Hour. “Getting pretty cozy with it. . . . This is not a cookie-cutter track by any means. That’s the challenge.

“I can only imagine that once I finally get a good grip on it, I’m going to be much more confident out there, and maybe the Lady in Black and I will become friends one day.”

Indeed, the relationship improved in the second practice session. With a top speed of 170.851 mph, Patrick was 24th fastest in final practice, improving nearly three miles per hour over her quickest lap in the first session.

Ryan Newman’s fondness for Darlington Raceway has translated to positive results over the years. A victory has been the only thing lost in translation.

Newman hopes that his luck will change to put him over the hump at NASCAR’s oldest superspeedway in Saturday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 (FOX, 7 p.m. ET).

“I’ve always loved Darlington,” Newman said. “When we first went and tested a Nationwide car there back in the day, it just fit me. I’ve always had good cars there, a good feeling and I look forward to another opportunity.”

The opportunities to contend for a win at the historic circuit have been plentiful since Newman joined the Sprint Cup Series full-time in 2002; his Darlington portfolio has an impressive seven top-five finishes in 13 races.

Additionally, Newman — one of the series’ best qualifiers — has five front-row starts and one pole position at the 1.366-mile track. That history could tilt in his favor in Friday’s qualifying as he sits just one pole away from a milestone 50th Coors Light Pole Award.

One thing that hasn’t been on his side is Darlington racing luck.

“We had a dominant race car (in 2003) and they gave me a drink bottle and I hit the kill switch and we never realized it for six laps under green,” said Newman, who led the most laps (120) but finished 23rd in that year’s Southern 500. “Crazy things have happened to us and we’ll just try to go back and try another shot. We used to have two chances and now we only have one, so there’s a lot of pressure on us.”

Another driver who will grab plenty of spotlight at Darlington is Danica Patrick, who appeared with Newman at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday to promote the May 27 Coca-Cola 600. Patrick will be pulling double-duty in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races this weekend in hopes of gaining as much experience as possible in her first visit to one of the sport’s trickiest tracks.

Patrick plans to enter 10 Sprint Cup races this year; given the choice, she said she’d rather Darlington came later on that 10-race slate.

“I just think that’s not the way the schedule worked out,” said Patrick, whose only other Sprint Cup start was an abbreviated 38th-place finish this year in the Daytona 500. “I mean to be honest, it was going to be Darlington first, so at least I’ve driven the car, at least I’m comfortable with the guys, at least I’m fitting comfortably in the car, and we’ve had time to test. It could’ve been worse, but it’s as good as it can be.”

Greg Biffle, on the heels of his fifth-place finish last weekend at Talladega, remains the Sprint Cup Series leader, heading Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth by seven points in the standings. Biffle is a two-time Southern 500 winner, going back-to-back in 2005 and ’06.

PASTRANA, BLANEY BACK FOR MORE
Two drivers that made splashy debuts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series last month at Richmond International Raceway are back for second helpings this weekend.

Action sports star Travis Pastrana and second-generation driver Ryan Blaney will be back on track Friday night (ESPN2, 7 p.m. ET) in the VFW Sports Clips Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway.

Pastrana finished 22nd in his series debut April 27 at Richmond after incurring a late-race penalty for speeding on pit road. Blaney, son of Sprint Cup driver Dave Blaney, dazzled with a solid seventh-place finish in a star-studded field. Both drivers emerged from Richmond with their cars relatively unscathed, but expect Darlington to be less forgiving.

In an effort to pick up advice on getting around the sport’s oldest superspeedway, Pastrana sought out one of the masters — NASCAR Hall of Famer David Pearson, a South Carolina native and 10-time Darlington winner. The two met during a promotional appearance at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, and Pastrana was grateful to learn from a stock-car racing legend.

“It really has been amazing to see the people willing to help me each week,” Pastrana said. “I have received help from Jimmie Johnson, Matt Crafton and Ryan Truex, just to name a few. It’s just amazing all these people are willing to help me when they have to race against me each week. In motocross, you never told another competitor your secrets. It just wasn’t part of the culture.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. enters the event with a head of steam as the new Nationwide Series points leader, five points ahead of Elliott Sadler after last weekend’s third-place effort at Talladega. In the last seven races, Stenhouse — the defending series champ — has two wins and has finished no worse than sixth.

TALLADEGA, Ala. — It was a chance encounter that led Robert Weaver to a life of service to the deaf and blind children of Alabama.

And it was for that life of service that Weaver, affectionately known as the “Ice Cream Man,” was recognized Sunday before the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway as the 2011 recipient of the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award.

Over a span of nearly 50 years, Weaver has made more than 12,000 visits to the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, and that estimate may be conservative.

Early in his career as a volunteer — and it truly has been a career — he started providing ice cream cones to the children there.

“I knew they had the best food in the world, but then I said, ‘I wonder if they ever get ice cream served in a cone?’ ” Weaver explained. ” So I tried it, and I loved it, and I’ve been scraping ice cream ever since.”

But that’s not how he connected with the school in the first place. Weaver had been active in sports and recreation in Talladega, and his reputation in that area prompted a visit from a representative of the school.

“The supervising teacher for the School for the Blind came into my shoe store and said, ‘Mr. Weaver, I understand you know something about weightlifting; would you come to the school for the blind and help our physical ed teacher?’ ” Weaver recalls. “I had bought a cheap set of weights, I read two pages in the book and was working with three teenagers, and the phys ed teacher knew a thousand times more about that than I did.

“But I really believe an angel went to her and said, ‘Get Robert Weaver to come to the School for the Blind.’ And I went. They had a brand new bowling alley, and the PE teacher didn’t know how to even keep score, so I taught bowling, and I’ve been back to the campuses thousands of times.”

Weaver has given liberally of his own time and resources to improve the lives of deaf and blind children in Alabama, and he looks for nothing in return, though occasionally there’s a huge emotional payoff.

“There was a young deaf boy who was about 12 years old,” Weaver remembers fondly. “He had speech, but he was very, very hard of hearing. He was walking across the campus, and he felt a pain in his leg. He went to the school infirmary, and they discovered he had cancer in his leg, and it also had eaten the calcium in his bones and had gotten in his lung.

“He had to have a number of operations, and some way, somehow, I began to be one of them that would sit with him at the hospital. I took him to Washington, and we shook hands with President Reagan on national TV. I took him to the Grand Canyon, and we flew over that. And one day, on his own, he looked up to me and said, ‘Mr. Weaver, I’m going to tell you what you’ve got. God has given you the biggest heart.’ ”

As the Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award winner, Weaver received a Ford Edge and $100,000 used to established the Betty Jane France/Robert Weaver Endowment for the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind.

Weaver jokingly refers to himself as the “highest paid person at the school.”

“Now I don’t get my check paid to the order of Robert Weaver, like everybody else,” he says. “My check comes by direct deposit — direct to my heart.”

Nominations are open through May 31 for the 2012 Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award. Visit NASCAR.com/Foundation for details.

TALLADEGA, Ala. — The most fun Mike Ford had as Denny Hamlin’s crew chief occurred during his first two years in that role.

By the time Ford was replaced by Darian Grubb in his job at Joe Gibbs Racing, the fun was gone — long gone.

In his move to Richard Petty Motorsports as crew chief for Aric Almirola, Ford sees a chance to rekindle the sort of excitement that buoyed him during the early days with Hamlin.

Ford said his release from Gibbs at the end of the 2011 season was timely.

“I’m not going to say a lot about that, other than to say a lot of outside influences made it not fun,” Ford said Friday at Talladega Superspeedway. “The past couple of years truly weren’t that fun. It was best for both parties . . .

“It was just time to go. It was time to move on. I don’t have any problem with Denny, and I still have a lot of good friends over there. That’s life. You move on, and you continue on.”

Hamlin and Ford won two races together in 2006, Hamlin’s rookie year. In 2010, Hamlin won a career-best eight races and had the Sprint Cup championship within his grasp before spinning early in the season finale at Homestead and losing the title to Jimmie Johnson.

Ford sees the same spark of talent in Almirola that he nurtured in Hamlin. In his first full season in the Cup series, Almirola is driving the No. 43 Ford for RPM.

“I have seen him be competitive in this series,” Ford said, citing Almirola’s fourth-place finish in a fill-in role at Homestead in 2010. “To see that encourages me. On top of that, he’s a nice guy.

“You want to have someone that you can work with and is kind of low-key — and I’m fairly low-key. I think it’s going to be a good match.”

Ford also relishes the role as a steadying influence for a young driver. Almirola is 28.

“Some of the veteran guys don’t really do well with veteran crew chiefs, because you are bull-headed on some things,” Ford said. “I looked at this and sat with Aric, and he is looking for a leader and someone to mentor him a little bit.

“I’m looking for that role as well, but also, you always learn something from somebody coming in. I’m looking forward to that.”

The collaboration got off to an excellent start at Talladega. Almirola paced both Cup practices, posting a top speed of 199.172 mph in the first session.

DRAFTING WITH A WINNER
Clint Bowyer won two of the last three races at Talladega with Richard Childress Racing. Now Bowyer drives for Michael Waltrip Racing, and Martin Truex Jr. is happy to have him as a teammate.

“To have a teammate that is obviously a proven winner on plate tracks — somebody that I have confidence in that, if we can get hooked up together, he’s going to do the right things — that’s really, really cool,” said Truex, who enters Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 fifth in the Cup standings, 22 points behind leader Greg Biffle.

“We worked very well together at Daytona (in the season-opening Daytona 500), and that was the first time we had been teammates at a restrictor-plate track. I expect that this time it will be a little but easier. We’ll both be a little bit more comfortable and kind of understand the way each other does things. That should make for a better tandem if we’re able to do it long enough at the end.”

PATRICK LIKES THE PLATE TRACKSC.
Danica Patrick enjoys racing at Daytona and Talladega. For one thing, racing at restrictor-plate superspeedways reminds her most of IndyCar competition.

“It reminds me a lot of IndyCar racing because you’re flat-out, you’re looking for air, you’re just trying to stay with the pack, and you’re trying to weave your way through,” Patrick said. “It’s a high-speed chess match. I’m used to it. I like it. It’s not about speed — it’s about the style.”

Speaking of style, Patrick arrived at her interview session sporting a necklace of gaudy Talladega beads. Typically, beads are awarded in the Talladega infield for behavior involving alcohol and exhibitionism.

Asked how she got her string of beads, Patrick said coyly, “I can’t tell you that.”