WEEK IN REVIEW: Reporters’ notebook
In the run-up to today's race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, NASCAR's PR machine was plugging all the ways the racing league has "gone green."
And when they're not burning up tires and gasoline to see who can drive in circles the fastest, the folks at NASCAR have done some things for the environment, including recycling programs, tree plantings, renewable energy retrofits at racetracks and ethanol fuel in race cars.
But not everything the league has tried has worked out so well.
Here are some of NASCAR's lesser known (and possibly fake) eco-friendly ideas, courtesy of the Week in Review staff:
1. Instead of bringing in new drivers all the time, just recycle the old ones and add "Junior" to the end of their names.
2. Only use green flags, a practice that was discontinued during the 11,296th lap of last year's Daytona 500.
3. Trees are nice, but how about more Busches?
4. All cars, drivers and fans must run on pure, clean-burning Keystone Light.
5. Post-race doughnuts should only contain organic, locally produced ingredients.
6. Tried switching to the Chevy Volt, but it ends in disaster when the extension cords get tangled in Turn 3.
7. If you're going to trade paint, make sure it's free-trade paint.
8. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, fans should really think about laying off the nachos.
9. Two words: carpool lane.
During Tuesday's Clark County Commission meeting, one commissioner characterized the county's financial woes as a once-overweight farm animal stricken with an eating disorder.
To the surprise of everyone, the analogy came from Commissioner Lawrence Weekly, not "Ten-Gallon" Tom Collins.
"The county was a fat cow who had all this money," Weekly said. "We became commissioners when this cow started suffering from anorexia."
KRISTI JOURDAN
