Yates wants NASCAR to go green

"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. The office lights are off. So are the hallway lights leading to his office. The break room lights and the bathroom lights are off, and the computer behind him is powered down. The blinds are open to let the sunshine in.

This man who has so greatly prospered, who has achieved financial wealth and personal and professional acclaim beyond his wildest dreams because he produced more power than the next guy, is gravely concerned about that which gave him so much — energy.

And energy is merely the epicenter of his worries. From his concern for energy springs a wildly cyclical hypothesis that over a two-hour discussion spreads to drugs, education, firecrackers, obesity and war. And how NASCAR, of all things, can be a catalyst for change.

Robert Yates wants to change the world one light bulb at a time. One engine at a time. One race at a time.

"For the past five or six years I've been complaining about energy, especially fossil fuel," Yates said with a steely glare. "And it's my livelihood. It's my business. But that's why I think I could speak on it, because I've lived that life." ESPN.com