Chuck took a last minute trip to the Daytona 500 this past weekend courtesy of New Holland, where American Ethanol celebrated the start of the fifth year of its partnership with NASCAR.

“They’ve put over six million hard-earned miles at high RPMs on these race cars,” said Tom Buis of Growth Energy at the race on Sunday. “They got better performance, they didn’t lose mileage and they haven’t had a single problem.”

Growth Energy, the National Corn Growers Association, New Holland and POET-DSM are partners in American Ethanol with NASCAR and Buis says it has helped to promote E15 to consumers. “We’re seeing more retail outlets offer E15, the same high-performance, less expensive, better fuel,” Buis said.

NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Brent Dewar says the partnership with American Ethanol has been very positive for them. “What we love about ethanol is not only is it a great renewable but it’s a great racing fuel, higher octane so it’s great performance for the drivers,” he said. “It’s also great for the environment, reduces greenhouse gases, homemade here in America …. it’s a win-win-win and in car races we’re all about winning!” Interview with Brent Dewar, NASCAR, at Daytona 500

Chuck also had a chance to chat with American Ethanol NASCAR driver Austin Dillon while in Daytona.

“I really support what we’re doing with American Ethanol,” said Dillon. “It’s funny that you wouldn’t think NASCAR would be a “green” sport” but what we’ve done with American Ethanol has helped us be the leader in sports with green American Ethanol.”

Dillon drove the number 33 car in the Xfinity Series Alert Today Florida 300 race at Daytona Speedway on Saturday and the #3 car in the Daytona 500 race for Richard Childress Racing. Interview with NASCAR driver Austin Dillon