NASCAR engines need to be more fuel efficient, Yates believes. (LAT photo) » More Photos

UNDER THE HOOD, PART ONE Car owner Robert Yates, who came up through the NASCAR ranks as one of the best engine builders in the Nextel Cup garage, would like to see the sport adopt more fuel-efficient engines in the future. Yates believes NASCAR should be on the cutting edge of engine technology at a time when gas prices are soaring and the threat of supply shortages in the future is very real.

"My biggest No. 1 worry in life right now is what are we going to do about energy, not what are we going to do about NASCAR, not what am I going to do about my team," said Yates. "My biggest concern is how can we breathe cleaner air, how can we change the culture about how we use fossil fuels. I dearly wish we could use out sport as a proving ground. We can do a lot better with energy. We can cover twice the ground with the same amount of energy. That's my mission."

Yates, of course, will lead Ford Motor Co.'s development of its next-generation Nextel Cup engine, which will debut in 2009, along with a new Dodge engine. But he wants NASCAR to go much further in the future. "I've been doing this 40 years, I remember what happened in the 1970s," Yates said, referring to the first gasoline crisis in the United States. "The next time it happens, it won't go away. And we really need to change the culture and how we use the fuel."

CHARITABLE EFFORTS The Jamie McMurray Foundation donated $20,000 to Autism Speaks Sunday morning at Dover International Raceway. Crown Royal, McMurray's sponsor at Roush Fenway Racing, promised to donated $250,000 to McMurray's Foundation if he's able to win Monday's Autism Speaks 400 presented by Visa.

"I have a niece who is affected by autism and I watch my sister live with it every day," McMurray said Sunday morning at Dover. "When we started the Jamie McMurray Foundation it was a no-brainer that we wanted to help create awareness and raise money to not only find out one day what causes it, but to help the families that are living with it right now. … It's something that's very important to me."

UNDER THE HOOD, PART DEUX Chevrolets teams continued to shuffle the mix of the old SB2 motor and the new R07 powerplant. At Dover this weekend, Joe Gibbs Racing, Hall of Fame Racing and Richard Childress Racing are using the RO7, while Hendrick Motorsports, Haas CNC Racing, Ginn Racing and Dale Earnhardt Inc. are running the SB2.