[LSC9901]

MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- "Going green" is auto racing jargon for the start of an event, the ceremonious moment a waving green flag signals to the drivers and fans that the race is on. Recently retired Nextel Cup owner Robert Yates is ready for NASCAR to go a different sort of green -- the environmentally sensitive variety.


"I get very depressed when I look at the future of our country, and I don't think it has to be that way," Yates said. "I think the things we could do can improve it, but we have to change the culture."


Yates is doing his part. He sits at a desk in his office deep within his team's shop, hands folded. He is fidgety, uncertain exactly how to express his feelings. What he is about to share goes against his lifeblood.

ESPN - Smith: Yates wants NASCAR to go green - Nascar

[Team Yates]

You go Robert!!

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by LSC9901

Two things immediately jumped out at me when I first saw this:
(a) It's authored by Marty Smith, therefore it is basically has a value only for birdcage lining, and...
(b) Robert has become a "Tree hugger??"

Then I read the article. Go job Marty and You go, Robert!

I thought the opening with the dark office and hallway was a bit much and showed Mr. Smith for the drama queen he is capable of being. But, after I got past that the story was excellent and made a ton of very valid points, such as computerized fuel systems. (Which I think NA__AR may be forced to adopt sometime down the road)

The statement Robert made which made me stand up and shout was the following:

"Originally, racing was built off of manufacturers and racers refining the engines," Yates said. "It's time to reverse that role back to promoting the engines from the manufacturers -- not a hand-built $100,000 engine [like we have today]. Put it in the car -- a factory engine with great efficiencies and that's what you race."

Boy, does NA__AR need a massive dose of this!

OK Marty, you wrote one really worthwhile non NASCAR-hugging pablum, which you normally write. You can go back to your usual shtick now.

[DOF_power]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

But, after I got past that the story was excellent and made a ton of very valid points, such as computerized fuel systems. (Which I think NA__AR may be forced to adopt sometime down the road)

The statement Robert made which made me stand up and shout was the following:

"Originally, racing was built off of manufacturers and racers refining the engines," Yates said. "It's time to reverse that role back to promoting the engines from the manufacturers -- not a hand-built $100,000 engine [like we have today]. Put it in the car -- a factory engine with great efficiencies and that's what you race."

Boy, does NA__AR need a massive dose of this!

OK Marty, you wrote one really worthwhile non NASCAR-hugging pablum, which you normally write. You can go back to your usual shtick now.

Damn, you beat me to it.

How about this for valid points:
"To me, NASCAR is going to back themselves into an IROC series," Yates said. "Then they're not going to be promoting them. They'll be trying to get one spec engine and one spec car.
...
Yates points to Audi's effort in the Panoz Racing Series as a good model to follow. "They've got every engineer at Audi there," he said. "That [technology] needs to be what's in our sports cars. And the base of it needs to be what's in our minivans. That has a value back to the big population -- not the 43 cars and 200,000 people in the parking lot.