Despite the enormously successful efforts to clear up Nascar’s image, you just can’t deny that the sports roots are steeped in corn liquor, as the early drivers like Wendell Oliver Scott and Ralph Earnhardt got their start running bootleg liquor across state lines in the prohibition days, testing the limits of their driving skills against each other and the police.

Now Indy racing is going back to its roots, but in a far more politically correct way. They call it the greening of racing, and they don’t call it corn liquor anymore. They call it ethanol.
Anyway, a decent size clutch of people gathered beside the Chicago Board of Trade this morning to see Indy race car driver Jeff Simmons, his 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol car and to hear about IndyCar’s transition to 100% fuel-grade ethanol in 2007. CBOT Chairman Charlie Carey was behind the podium supporting the ethanol fuel, especially as the CBOT is home to corn and ethanol futures.