NASCAR Goes Ultra-Green in April

In its ongoing efforts to “go green” NASCAR racing teams have reportedly committed to use a 15% ethanol blend (E15) in all three of its 2013 national racing series – Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck – being 50% more ethanol than the E10 blend available at US service stations. Moreover, NASCAR has set a goal of planting enough trees to offset carbon emissions produced by its race cars, noting that a single tree has the potential of absorbing a metric ton of carbon dioxide during its lifetime which is roughly equivalent to the carbon dioxide produced by a race car travelling 500 miles.

A number of NASCAR affiliates and partners are joining in the tree planting initiative. Ford has committed to planting one tree for every lap led by a Ford driver during April, with UPS joining forces with the Arbor Day Foundation in an effort to plant more than 8,000 trees as a celebration of this annual event. (National Arbor Day in the United States is observed on the last Friday in April each year, although individual states may have Arbor Day on different dates according to their optimal time for tree planting.) Through NASCAR’s Green website, fans are being encouraged to support the “NASCAR Green Clean Air Tree Planting Program™” with donations. A number of regions that have recently been hit by natural disasters have been identified as targets for the tree planting project, and those donating can choose which area they would like their donation to be used in.

The other NASCAR Green initiative is the “NASCAR Race to GREEN™” project designed to motivate fans, teams, tracks, drivers, and official NASCAR Partners to protect our environment. NASCAR is committed to environmental sustainability and recycling programs. At NASCAR tracks Coca-Cola and Coors Light provide bins for recycling plastic bottle and aluminum cans, while Safety-Kleen Systems recycles and re-refines all oil and lubricant used in racing, and Goodyear facilitates an effective tire recycling program. Other NASCAR Green partners include Creative Recycling, Freightliner, Green Earth Technologies, Green Plains Renewable Energy, Growth Energy, Miller Coors, NCGA, McLaren, New Holland Agriculture, POET, Sprint, Sunoco, Toyota, UPS, Novozymes, and 3M.

In a statement NASCAR CEO Brian France said that the NASCAR Green program in April is the “most ambitious and collective effort to date in reducing the sport’s impact on the environment”. Clearly, NASCAR Green is an initiative worth supporting.

NMPA Hall of Fame Honors NASCAR Legends

For the past four decades members of the National Motorsports Press Association have been reporting hot-off-the-press motorsport stories through print, television, radio and the internet to millions of fans. When the NMPA started more than forty years ago, it consisted of a small group of journalists and broadcasters who focused mainly on NASCAR and stock car racing in the southern states of the USA. Today it has both national and international members and represents all forms of motorsports.

An interesting feature of the NMPA is its Hall of Fame in which notable figures in the motorsports industry are honored. In January 2013, three of NASCAR’s legends will be the latest inductees into the NMPA Hall of Fame – namely Ken Squier, Jim Hunter and Dr. Joseph Mattioli, with the latter two being honored posthumously. All three spent their careers contributing to the sport of auto racing, and the general consensus is that their induction into the NMPA Hall of Fame is well-deserved.

Jim Hunter started his journalistic career in South Carolina before moving into the field of public relations and later being appointed as track president at Darlington Raceway. Hunter fulfilled corporate roles with both NASCAR and International Speedway Corporation during his career, remaining an integral part of NASCAR for the rest of his life.

Dr. Jospeh Mattioli was the founder of the very popular Pocono Raceway which opened in 1971 and currently hosts both NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races, as well as IZOD IndyCar Series and ARCA Racing Series, among other events. The track is owned by Mattco Inc. which also owns the South Boston Speedway in Birginia. Pocono is also the home base of the Sports Car Club of America and some motorcycle clubs and racing schools. Known as “Doc” in the NASCAR community, Mattioli trained as a dentist at Temple University, but his passion lay in racing and he supported the sport whole-heartedly, which is he well remembered for.

Ken Squier started offering lap-by-lap commentary in the world of auto racing as a 14-year-old from the back of a logging truck at a stock car dirt race track in Vermont. His father, Lloyd Squier owned and operated the radio station WDEV based in his home town of Waterbury, Vermont. When his father passed away, Ken Squier took over ownership and running of the station, which he continues to do today. Squier was the co-founder of the Motor Racing Network in 1969 and filled the role of auto racing announcer for a number of years. He joined CBS Sports in 1972 and over the following years auto racing fans came to know his unique broadcasting style as he delivered lap-by-lap accounts of the action on the racetrack. Today Squier contributes to NASCAR coverage on the Speed Channel.

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