Let's have us some car talk shall we? I mean some of those NASCAR drivers are actually pretty cute. That's not what's important here, though that might be why my 94-year-old grandmother, Josephine, watches it, I suspect. She's crushing on Tony Stewart #20!  The important thing is that NASCAR is slowly pulling out of the pit stop in regard to using alternative fuels. The Washington Post had a really good article on the matter, which apparently, stems from NASCAR being unable to determine whether ethanol blends,diesel, hybrids or some other combination of the above, would make for the best conversion. Strides are happening in other areas in the sport, at least: the rubber tires that usually scrapped after only 30 or 40 laps (!) are now being recycled. In fact, I've seen shredded rubber tires end up as the floor covering in horse stables. Also, motor oils and other lubricants are being re-refined. There might not be a big race to get into the fast lane with all of this (sorry, couldn't resist) because it's not as if the drivers have to pay for their own gas, as Sunoco has been the official gas supplier since 2004 and gives it to them free. And while Sunoco does sell ethanol-blended gas, it's the decidedly less earth-friendly high-octane petrol that performs best for these speed racers, like Grammy's favorite, pictured below.

Speaking of speed racers, let me take a minute to give a "Days of Thunder"-style thumbs up to driftwood racer, Verena Mei. She may not run the laps with the NASCAR boys, but Verena is the first woman to drive in the Formula-Drift racing series, and she converted her race car  to run on waste vegetable oil this summer.  What is drifting? My thoughts exactly, but here it is from Wikipedia: "Drifting refers to a driving technique and to a motor sport where the driver intentionally skids the rear tires through turns, preserving vehicle control and a high exit speed. A car is said to be drifting when the rear slip angle is greater than the front slip angle, and the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn (e.g. car is turning left, wheels are pointed right or vice versa), and the driver is controlling these factors. As a motor sport, professional drifting competitions are held across the globe." She's a lady race car driver which is cool, and that she's converted her car and her 18-wheel car and equipment hauler to run on biodiesel is cooler than cool. That's her below.

[Photo of Tony Stewart: Chris Graythen/Getty Images]