Free Republic

Urged on by roaring fans, 43 NASCAR rivals flashed around the flat oval at Virginia's Martinsville Speedway in the Subway 500. Drivers braked at the track's notorious wreck-maker turns, then screamed down the straightaways at speeds of up to 126 mph. Before packed grandstands and a national television audience, each car doubled as a speeding billboard emblazoned with logos like Home Depot, Motorcraft, Interstate Batteries, and . . . Care-Net Pregnancy Centers? Hardly your standard manly racecar ad. But Joe Gibbs Racing Team driver Bobby Labonte indeed circled the track on Oct. 23 in the Interstate Batteries car, its entire...

<p>DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - When Bobby Labonte takes the green flag in Sunday's Daytona 500, he'll be racing for victory - and the Lord.</p> <p>The hood of Labonte's car is both a shameless movie plug - "The Passion of the Christ,'' coming soon to a theater near you - and some new-style proselytizing for the Gospel.</p>

<p>Kneel down. Put your hands together. Offer thanks right this very moment to whatever deity you desire that that you are not 18 years old and gay and living in the state of Kansas right now.</p> <p>This gratitude, it is a given. This is so much of a given you might not even need to hear why. You just say to yourself, oh my freaking God, I can only imagine.</p>

Norm Miller, chairman of Interstate Batteries, replaced his own company's hood-sized logo with an ad for The Passion of Christ on the Joe Gibs Racing #18 Chevrolet, driven by Bobby Labonte, for the February 15 Daytona 500 (1:30 PM, NBC).