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Toyota Renews Entitlement Pact With Richmond

Published in Racing
Thursday, 18 February 2021 07:08

RICHMOND, Va. – Richmond Raceway and Toyota have renewed agreement that will see Toyota continue as entitlement sponsor of the Toyota Spring Race Weekend.

Toyota will continue to sponsor the Toyota Owners 400 NASCAR Cup Series race on April 18 and ToyotaCare 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on April 17.

The pact continues a tradition of thanking Toyota owners, along with the Richmond Dealers Ass’n, that began in 2013.

“We are proud of our longstanding partnership with Toyota as we have collaborated to provide one of the best race experiences for loyal NASCAR fans and Toyota owners in the sport,” said Richmond President Dennis Bickmeier. “As we celebrate our 75th anniversary, we look forward to working closely with Toyota and the Richmond Toyota Dealers Ass’n to continue to offer an unparalleled race experience fitting for this historic season.”

“Showcasing our ToyotaCare program and thanking all of our loyal Toyota owners through this great partnership with Richmond Raceway and the Richmond-area dealers is an important initiative for our company,” said Paul Doleshal, group manager of motorsports and assets, Toyota Motor North America. “We look forward to the continuation of the ToyotaCare 250 and Toyota Owners 400, and are also excited to get the chance to help Richmond Raceway celebrate their 75th anniversary as one of the best racing venues in the country.”

The Toyota Owners 400 will be the track’s 66th annual spring NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday, April 18 at 3 p.m. This year’s race will be the eighth Toyota Owners 400 after the 2019 edition was realigned due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. of Joe Gibbs Racing have won the last two Toyota Owners 400’s in 2018 and 2019. Each driver also swept the season at America’s Premier Short Track.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will compete for the second consecutive season in the ToyotaCare 250 on April 17 at 1:30 p.m. Last season, the ToyotaCare 250 was moved to the final race of the regular season as part of Richmond’s fall race weekend on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2013 to 2019, the ToyotaCare 250 was a NASCAR Xfinity Series race.

Nine Races For USAC Radical Focus Midgets

Published in Racing
Thursday, 18 February 2021 07:25

INDIANAPOLIS – The second season of USAC Radical Focus Midget racing awaits competitors this year, with a schedule consisting of dates on paved ovals spanning from Arizona to Kentucky and from Tennessee to Idaho.

All events will pay points toward the season championship, which was captured by California’s Joseph Holiday last year.

Two further events to be run in the state of California are pending at press time.

Havasu 95 Speedway in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., bookends the season, with four total events, all of which have feature events 50 laps in length. Two races start the campaign there on March 19-20, and two will be held at the conclusion of the year on Nov. 12-13.

The purse for all four races will be based on the car count and will be held in conjunction with USAC’s Eastern Midget Ass’n.

A big three-race weekend for the Radical Focus Midgets comes to the mid-south for a trio of events in Kentucky and Tennessee during the month of August – a doubleheader with the King of the Wing Sprint Car Series each night.

First up is Kentucky Motor Speedway in Whitesville, Ky., on Aug. 5, followed by Veterans Motorplex in Greenbrier, Tenn., on Aug. 6 and Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway on Aug. 7.

All three shows will be co-sanctioned by the USAC Eastern Midget Ass’n.

On Sept. 25-26, the series heads to Idaho’s Meridian Speedway for back-to-back races at the Chaz Groat Memorial, honoring the life of the standout Focus Midget driver who recently perished in a car accident.

2021 USAC Radical Focus Midget Series Schedule

March 19 – Havasu 95 Speedway – Lake Havasu City, Ariz. (E)
March 20 – Havasu 95 Speedway – Lake Havasu City, Ariz. (E)
Aug. 5 – Kentucky Motor Speedway – Whitesville, Ky. (E)
Aug. 6 – Veterans Motorplex – Greenbrier, Tenn. (E)
Aug. 7 – Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway – Nashville, Tenn. (E)
Sept. 25 – Meridian Speedway – Meridian, Idaho
Sept. 26 – Meridian Speedway – Meridian, Idaho
Nov. 12 – Havasu 95 Speedway – Lake Havasu City, Ariz. (E)
Nov. 13 – Havasu 95 Speedway – Lake Havasu City, Ariz. (E)

* – (E) represents a co-sanctioned race with the USAC Eastern Midgets

Five Flamboro Races Scheduled For Can-Am TQ Midgets

Published in Racing
Thursday, 18 February 2021 07:49

MILLGROVE, Ontario — There will be many special moments at Flamboro Speedway this season, including the crowning of a champion.

Can-Am T.Q. Midget Series officials have revealed the tour’s 18-race schedule, which includes five visits to Flamboro Speedway, including the series’ championship night.

The series will visit the third-mile oval for its season opener on May 8, before returning on June 5, July 17, and Aug. 21. They will then crown a Can-Am Midget T.Q. Series champion at Flamboro on Sept. 25.

For more than 50 years, midget racing has taken place across North America, with the Can-Am Midget racing group standing as one of the most successful clubs in both Canada and the United States.

The series was only able to visit Flamboro Speedway on a single occasion during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, but put on a show for the fans watching via GForceTV.

Darren Dryden scored the victory, marking his third win at Flamboro in the last three events, but was heavily challenged throughout, including a late-race battle with Daniel Hawn.

A mid-July weekend will feature the APC United Late Models and Super Stocks and T.Q. Can-Am Midgets set for Saturday, July 17, followed by the Pinty’s Series the next day.

Friesen Set for First Xtreme Appearances

Published in Racing
Thursday, 18 February 2021 08:00
Stewart Friesen will race with the Drydene Xtreme DIRTcar Series this weekend in South Carolina.

NICHOLS, S.C. – He’s a big-block modified star with the Super DIRTcar Series, a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular, and now, a late model pilot with the Drydene Xtreme DIRTcar Series.

Stewart Friesen, of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, is set to make his series debut in this weekend’s South Carolina doubleheader on Saturday, Feb. 20, at Lake View Motor Speedway and Sunday, Feb. 21, at Cherokee Speedway for the Frostbite 40.

He’s had a packed schedule over the past month – big-block racing in the 50th DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park and his NASCAR commitments at Daytona Int’l Speedway – but he’s motivated to better himself in Halmar Friesen Racing’s newest motorsports venture, the dirt late model.

“The Xtreme [DIRTcar] Series is something I was watching,” Friesen said. “It’s after the big-block and Truck stuff is done for the year. We watched [Brandon] Overton win at Cherokee and then [Chris] Madden win [at Volunteer].

“It’s unique. It’s like, we could almost race every weekend, 12 months out of the year with the late model.”

Like the Canadian, several of the drivers competing this weekend have yet to make a lap around Lake View Motor Speedway. However, the majority of them are familiar with the three-eighths-mile Cherokee Speedway. Even Friesen.

He and his new Cornett-powered Halmar International Longhorn Chassis first got to know each other in their initial testing session at Cherokee last month. He also picked up a big-block modified victory at Cherokee last May with the Short Track Super Series.

Following his test at Cherokee last month, he then made the trip further south to race at All-Tech Raceway and in East Bay Raceway Park’s Winternationals, marking his first competitive nights in the car.

While he was unable to qualify for a feature in those events, he broke through with a second-fast qualifying effort in his group, a heat race win and a seventh-place finish in the second night of competition at Bubba Raceway Park on Feb. 2.

“That last race at Bubba, we were just getting comfortable and learning about the car,” Friesen said. “It all kind of fell into place for us. Our guys getting comfortable working on the car, myself getting comfortable with the shocks and springs and stuff and getting comfortable in the seat as well.”

He’s won numerous races with the Super DIRTcar Series, took a checkered flag with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series in 2015 and even has two NASCAR victories in his Truck. He’s mastered his skills in all three disciplines and is ready to take on the new challenge of a dirt late model.

“It’s cool. It’s definitely unique,” Friesen said. “It’s a different experience from the Truck, the [big-block] modified or even the sprint car racing I did some years ago. Definitely something I’ve always wanted to do, being a fan of that discipline of racing.”

He’s said before that there are “zero moral victories,” even when it comes to something as new and challenging as the Late Model is to him. When he missed the final transfer spot by one position to get in the feature of his only East Bay appearance last month, a strong feeling of frustration set in. But while that relentless desire to improve and compete against the best drivers fuels him, he knows it’s going to take some time for he and the car to fully mesh.

“We’re realistic about our goals with the late model,” Friesen said. “Especially in Florida during the Speedweeks chase when there was 60s, high-50s car-count; East Bay had like 76 the night we ran there. So, our first goal was just to qualify for a feature.”

With three new tracks now under his belt in a late model, all of different sizes and surface types, Friesen’s ready to apply all he’s learned in the past month and tackle a fourth new venue this weekend at Lake View.

“I probably learned more about racing and that style in those couple of weeks than I have in the last 10 years between the Modified and Truck races,” Friesen said. “It’s a whole different discipline, but it’s been really exciting and a lot of fun to learn that.”

Heckert Making Cup Debut For Live Fast Motorsports

Published in Racing
Thursday, 18 February 2021 08:13

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – Live Fast Motorsports announced Thursday that Scott Heckert will wheel the No. 78 Ford Mustang with Motorsport Games as the primary sponsor during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event on the Daytona Int’l Speedway Road Course.

“We are so excited to have Scott driving for us at the Daytona Road Course,” said team co-owner B.J. McLeod. “He’s an absolute wheel-man on road courses, and his stats show just that.”

“This is a special moment for me and it’s even better that I get to drive for two of my close friends,” said Heckert. “It’s been great getting to witness B.J. and Matt (Tifft) build this new team and I’m honored to represent them at their first road course race.”

When B.J. and Jessica McLeod brought on Heckert as their second driver in their late-model driver development program, they would have never imagined their relationship with Heckert would blossom to what it has transpired to be over time. In 2016, Heckert made his Xfinity Series debut with BJ McLeod Motorsports where he earned his finish in the Xfinity Series at Watkins Glen Int’l.

Heckert also found success in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East after racing full-time for three years. In 2014, Heckert earned two road course wins in the K&N Series at Watkins Glen and Virginia Int’l Raceway. In 2015, Heckert drove for Justin Marks and HScott Motorsports where he recorded two wins, again, at Watkins Glen as well as Bowman Gray Stadium.

What a lot of people don't realize about the first NHL Winter Classic is that it very well could have been the last NHL Winter Classic.

We remember Sidney Crosby scoring the game-winning goal on New Year's Day in 2008, in front of a raucous and frozen stadium crowd in Buffalo in a game that looked like it was being played inside a snow globe.

We remember that game between the Penguins and Sabres sparking the NHL's new era of outdoor games, which has spanned from Fenway Park to the Cotton Bowl to Dodger Stadium. We remember it as the moment when the NHL, still reeling from its canceled lockout season in 2004-05, showed it could transcend its niche status, plant its flag on a day meant for college football and draw a stadium's worth of fans to watch a regular-season hockey game.

What we don't really remember from that game: the risk.

The risk that the gameplay could be more atrocious than it was. The risk that a player could suffer a significant injury due to the unwieldy conditions. That no one, from fans to sponsors, would actually care enough about the outdoor game gimmick to want a second edition.

"If minor things had been different -- the weather maybe two or three degrees warmer than it was -- maybe the Winter Classic goes away," recalled Bill Daly to Sports Business Journal.

Instead, 11 more Winter Classic games and 19 other outdoor games would follow, including this weekend's NHL games at Lake Tahoe, pitting the Colorado Avalanche against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday and the Philadelphia Flyers against the Boston Bruins on Sunday.

These games are like nothing the NHL has attempted before: outdoor games played without fans in attendance, whose success is completely reliant on the quality of the game itself and the landscape (and waterscape) around the rink.

It's hockey as it was meant to be played, on a "frozen pond" in the middle of a winter vista. But there's no stadium sell-out crowd buying $30 hats. There's no sponsor-filled village of booths and kiosks around the venue.

The Lake Tahoe games are either going to rewrite the rules of the league's outdoor game strategy or they're going to be a one-and-done pandemic curio. Essentially, this is another "Winter Classic moment" for the NHL.

Man United outcast Januzaj finds solace at Sociedad

Published in Soccer
Thursday, 18 February 2021 07:36

It was in an interview with ESPN in December 2019 that Nicky Butt branded Adnan Januzaj the "biggest disappointment" of all the players to have come through Manchester United's academy.

"I don't think I've seen a player, probably since Ryan Giggs, who was as good as that," Butt said. "He was unbelievable. In my eyes he should have gone on to be a world superstar."

It's more than three-and-a-half years since Januzaj left United for Real Sociedad, and as he prepares to face his former club in the Europa League on Thursday, he is asked about Butt's claim.

"What he said, it's true," he says. "But the only problem is that I didn't have the right coach to get me on my level and to push me."

Januzaj's time at United encapsulates perfectly why the club have found it so difficult in the years since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. With new managers came new ideas, and while Januzaj flourished under David Moyes, he could not win over Louis van Gaal or Jose Mourinho.

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He had only just turned 18 when he was named on the bench for the first time in Ferguson's final game, a 5-5 draw with West Bromwich Albion in May 2013. Handed his senior debut by Moyes the following season, he made 35 appearances in a breakthrough campaign. He scored twice on his first Premier League start in a 2-1 win over Sunderland in October 2013 and signed a five-year contract just two weeks later. His rise was so spectacular that he earned a place in the Belgium squad for the 2014 World Cup.

But the upheaval at United, of which Januzaj became a victim, was only just beginning.

Moyes was sacked in April 2014 and replaced with Van Gaal. Januzaj's performances the previous season had seen him inherit Ryan Giggs' No. 11 shirt, but with Van Gaal in charge he hardly got a chance to wear it.

A key part of Moyes' squad, Januzaj found himself on the fringes under Van Gaal. In the Dutchman's first year, he started just seven league games. The following season, in August 2015, Januzaj was handed a rare start in United's second game of the season and scored the only goal in a 1-0 win at Aston Villa. But by the end of the month he had been shipped off on loan to Borussia Dortmund. He would go on to make just three more appearances for the club.

Speaking about Januzaj a year ago, Butt ended by saying pointedly: "Talent gets you through the gate here but what will keep you here is character and commitment." Now 26, Januzaj has a different interpretation of why his time at Old Trafford was cut short.

"When Van Gaal came I was playing one game out of six, so it was difficult, and I was like, 'What am I doing here?'" he tells ESPN. "The first season under Moyes I was getting game time to show myself. I think I played 30 or 35 games. Then it was one game and five on the bench and with my quality, I didn't understand.

"The only thing that the coach can use against you is if you're not training well, but I know myself, I was training well. It's never been an excuse for me, I've always trained hard since I started football.

"People were always talking about me, I've done this, I've done that, and it was difficult. When you're 18 and you're being criticised like that, it's difficult. Especially when you're being criticised without getting games. I can understand it if I was playing 10 games and eight were bad games but it was not the case. Sometimes people outside don't understand these things.

"At Manchester United, the most disappointing thing was that I wasn't getting games. At that point I just wanted to leave the club. It was a difficult situation."

Van Gaal was eventually sacked in May 2016, but hopes of winning back his place under Jose Mourinho were ended when he was ushered out the door in a loan move to Sunderland to be reunited with Moyes.

play
1:23

Januzaj: Man United's youth players have it easier now

Adnan Januzaj explains why it was harder for him to break the Man United first team than youth players now.

"I wanted to leave United because I wanted to get games," he says. "I went to Sunderland, we all know it's not a team for me and not a team where I would enjoy my football, but I went there because I wanted to have games. I wanted to play, that was the only thing. It was last minute and it was like, 'You have to go.'"

Januzaj struggled, Sunderland were relegated and Moyes resigned. In July 2017, just three years after being tipped for the top at United, Januzaj joined Real Sociedad for €11 million.

"The club and the coaches have helped me to be happy here," he says. "Once you're happy in your life, you can be happy on the pitch. Here I have more opportunities than I had in Manchester and the more you play, the more you can show yourself and you can flourish.

"At United I didn't have that many chances, especially when Van Gaal and Mourinho came. When they came there it was more difficult for me because I was a young player. I was 18 or 19 and I just had to accept things. Before that I had people who believed in me like Ferguson. If he had stayed there longer I think I would have played longer for Manchester United."

Januzaj insists he will have nothing to prove when he lines up against United for Sociedad in their Europa League round-of-32 first leg on Thursday. He has ambitions to play in the Champions League and to be part of the Belgium squad for this summer's European Championship and the World Cup next year, but insists his focus for now is doing his best for the club who gave him a fresh start.

"I live very well here, it's a great city to live and the people are very nice," he says. "It's a big club here in Spain and everything is going very well for me so I'm really happy.

"We are an attacking team, we have good attacking players. It's always been a club that has had great players, we try to play attractive football and we have good young players so the club is going very well.

"I'm 26 and still young. Sometimes people think I'm 35 because I've been so long in the game. I have to focus here and the rest follows. If you perform for your club, the rest follows. I'm really happy here and enjoying myself and hopefully I can keep going like this."

Sri Lanka fast bowler Dhammika Prasad has announced his retirement from international cricket at age 37.

Prasad played the last of his 25 Tests in October 2015, following which a serious shoulder injury impeded his career. Prasad eventually made a first-class comeback, following surgery, but could not quite break back into the national team.

Before that injury, however, he was one of Sri Lanka's premier quicks, remembered with particular fondness for his second-innings 5 for 50 at Headingley in 2014, which led to Sri Lanka winning their first series in England. That was his only five-wicket haul in Tests, but he was nevertheless impressive at home in 2015, taking four wickets in an innings consecutively against India.

Prasad finished with 75 Test wickets at an average of 35.97, and also took 32 ODI wickets at 30.50 in 24 games. He has a further 276 first-class wickets, largely for his Sinhalese Sports Club side, whom he has played for since 2002.

Rangana Herath, a long-time Sri Lanka team-mate, paid tribute to Prasad's exploits on Thursday.

"We had never won a series in England, and when Dhammika took wickets on that fourth day in Leeds, it set us up for victory and that was a remarkable thing," he said. "When he and I bowled together, I knew he would be putting pressure on the batsman from the other end - either keeping the runs down, or threatening their wickets.

"I also remember something to laugh about. In 2015, when we played India at home, he had a heated argument with Ishant Sharma on the field. At the time we all thought it would be something that went on for a long time. But that same evening, we saw him and Ishant having a coffee together at the hotel. They hadn't waited for the end of the match - they made up that evening itself."

Marvan Atapattu, another SSC stalwart, and Prasad's coach in 2014 during that memorable Headingley spell, was also effusive in his praise.

"Generally fast bowlers like to bowl with the new ball first thing in the day when the conditions suit them, but Dhammika was someone you could call on anytime," Atapattu said.

"He'd want the ball at all times of the day, no matter what condition it was in. If it was 5pm, and he was bowling with an old ball, and there was a batsman batting on 150, he'd still take the ball, because he wanted to get that breakthrough for the team. Those are rare qualities from a cricketer."

Prasad had spent the last few years attempting to make a comeback for Sri Lanka, but his bowling had not quite been the same since the shoulder injury and consequent surgery. He hopes to play another domestic season for SSC before quitting entirely, though this year's season may not be played, due to Covid-19.

Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfo's Sri Lanka correspondent. @afidelf

Sam Curran has been ruled out of the remainder of England's Test series in India due to the logistical difficulties of travelling solo during the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead he will now rejoin the squad on February 26, midway through the third Test, along with the rest of England's white-ball players ahead of the five T20I series in March.

Curran played in both of England's Tests against Sri Lanka last month, claiming three wickets at 38.00 in the 2-0 series win. However, instead of then flying on to Chennai for the first Two Tests against India, he returned home alongside his fellow multi-format players, Jonny Bairstow and Mark Wood, for a pre-arranged break from the team's biosecure bubble.

Bairstow and Wood have now returned to training following their quarantine period, and expect to be available for selection when the third Test gets underway in Ahmedabad next week. Curran, however, was granted an extended break, given that he had been in locked-down environments since the start of the England Test summer in July, including his stint with Chennai Super Kings at the IPL.

According to the ECB, the original plan had been for Curran to fly to Ahmedabad in time to make himself available for the fourth Test, starting on March 4.

But, with no direct flights available from the UK, and the cost of a charter flight being prohibitive for a solo passenger, Curran would have been required to make a stop-over en route - a situation that could have made social distancing problematic, especially in the event of issues arising during his transit period.

Furthermore, had any fellow passenger on a commercial flight tested positive on arrival in India, Curran would have run the risk of being placed in isolation before he had the opportunity to join up with the rest of the England squad.

"On the basis of the above, and to give Sam the best chance of minimising his risk of exposure to the virus, it was decided to delay his return so that he could travel on the charter flight with the white-ball squad members due to fly on 26 February," an ECB spokesman said.

The journey that Curran's team-mates endured in rejoining the England Test squad may have been a factor in the decision to postpone his trip. Speaking to the media on Thursday, Bairstow related how he, Wood and other members of the ECB back-room staff had had to take a seven-and-a-half-hour bus journey from Bangalore to Chennai, and navigate the difficulties of social distancing, even before the rigours of their six-day quarantine period.

"The journey [home] was fine, we just flew into Heathrow," Bairstow said. "The journey back out was four hours down to Heathrow where we nearly broke down, which was interesting. Then we had the flight out to Bangalore. We arrived there, had our tests and had to wait in the airport for our results to be negative.

"Then we had a seven-and-a-half-hour bus journey across India to Chennai. We weren't allowed to stop on that journey either, which was interesting. I'll let you have your own thoughts about how that trip was.

"We went to our bedrooms, where unfortunately there wasn't any fresh air which naturally made the quarantine period tough. We go through that, all the tests came back negative, and rejoined the group a couple of days ago.

"It's tricky with the logistics, the quarantine periods. It's especially very tricky when you're on a plane with other people. You've been quarantined at home effectively, because you don't want to contract the virus for your loved ones within your family, but also you don't want to contract the virus because then then you can't board a plane to come out to rejoin the tour.

"But then you're on a plane with people you've never met, and then you get to the airport and are greeted by a lot of loving Indian supporters and fans. It can be tricky trying to make sure you're doing everything you can in your remit to make sure you don't get the virus, but then there's things you can't help, like other people and the spaces they get into.

"You're then quarantined in your rooms hoping you haven't caught anything on the journey over because you'd be in the room for another 14 days. Yes, it is quite mentally taxing."

Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @miller_cricket

Roush Fenway 1st carbon neutral NASCAR team

Published in Breaking News
Thursday, 18 February 2021 07:30

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Roush Fenway Racing set a goal to reduce its carbon footprint even as it raced a pair of gas-guzzling cars all across the country.

The initiative started with small environmentally conscious measures that eventually grew into a companywide initiative. With support from partner Castrol, RFR became the first carbon neutral team in NASCAR.

Roush Fenway on Thursday announced its carbon neutrality certification according to the PAS 2060 standard, verified by independent third party ERM CVS. Roush reached the status throughout its entire organization, including operations and its two race teams, for 2020.

The team will mark the achievement Sunday at Daytona International Speedway with a special paint scheme on Ryan Newman's car. The Ford is typically a dominant green with red accents when Castrol sponsors the No. 6.

Newman's car this week will be stark white with a gray Castrol badge and muted logos from partners that supported the initiative. It created a clean look that symbolizes the minimalistic path to carbon neutrality. In its sponsorship negotiations with RFR, Castrol mandated a contract clause that the team work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and offset the balance.

"We've spent months tracking, quantifying, measuring our existing carbon footprint and ways to reduce our carbon footprint," RFR president Steve Newmark said. "There's no doubt that we have unavoidable carbon emissions in how we operate our business. When you race cars and travel around the country to do so, that will inevitably be part of our operations.

"We're trying to show that even companies in an industry like ours can take steps to reduce overall emissions, and our hope is that it will set an example for other teams and the racing industry."

To become carbon neutral, RFR set a goal to recycle 90% of every race car, including oil, rubber, aluminum and carbon fiber. The organization has reduced its overall waste produced by more than 100 tons over the past decade, switched to LED lighting throughout its campus, reduced energy consumption costs through computer-controlled HVAC systems and installed reflective roofing membranes to reduce solar heat gain.

Rainwater runoff at its North Carolina facility is captured and contained for landscape irrigation, and idling has been prohibited on campus to reduce emissions and air pollutants. The fleet of Roush company cars is being converted to Ford electric and hybrid vehicles.

Newman already has the all-electric Mustang Mach-E, the first Ford production developed from the ground up to produce a zero-emission vehicle.

"We as a society have to take notice to make an impact," Newman said. "I've never been one to pride myself in driving around an electric vehicle, but the reality is that makes a big impact. I'm a V-8 [engine] guy with the rumble, and a hot rod sounds good, looks good and take the kids for ice cream in it -- that's me, right?

"The reality is that comes with a cost to our environment, and I'm aware of that more so than ever. There are things that we can all be doing better."

Newman noted that once a week he picks up 15 gallons of trash from the road in front of his North Carolina farm. He fills 5-gallon buckets with wrappers, bottles, beer cans and bags from fast food restaurants and convenience stores.

"It's sad that people can be that nasty," Newman said. "Their mindset has nothing to do with greenhouse gases, or carbon footprints and offsets. They are more worried about not having trash on the floor of their car. They don't care about what they are driving; they don't care if it has a catalytic converters; they don't care if the oil has been changed or what happened to the oil after.

"It's a challenge, and the whole message here is that you don't have to do that. You can be efficient. You just have to be smarter."

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