BOSTON -- The 16-month alliance between Roush Racing and the Fenway Sports Group might be moving ahead at a leisurely pace. But there's no mistaking the positives that have been created amongst both organizations, at every level.

On Wednesday evening, at the culmination of Roush Fenway Racing Day at Fenway Park, the mutual respect, affinity and appreciation were palpable in a low-key night at the ballpark.

It was smiles-all-around from the Boston Red Sox's principal owner John Henry, to the team's chief operating officer Mike Dee, Roush Racing founder Jack Roush and the team's five current Sprint Cup Series drivers, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray and David Ragan.

"It's been a great partnership thus far and I'm really heartened by the progress we've made this year," Henry said as he walked through the dugout, its exit tunnel and into the very bowels of the legendary stadium. "Jack [Roush] and I talk a lot and I'm very happy with the progress."

And Henry said he was pleasantly surprised at what he's learned about NASCAR.

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"It's really very much like a family," Henry said. "The whole garage experience, in which everyone knows everyone else [is] really a warm community. Of course, there are a lot of rivalries, but I've sensed a lot of warmth from the fellow owners -- and it's a lot of fun."

The interaction among the Red Sox players and the Roush drivers before the game, and even among the ballplayers and their executives and the executives and the drivers, seemed to reflect that.

"I think there's a lot of mutual respect, and we have a number of NASCAR fans that are players," Henry said, adding that the comfortable atmosphere was business as usual. "That's the way we approach things; we have a very collegial way of running our operations and it seems to be similar to what I've seen in NASCAR."

"This is really what we had a vision for [when we executed the deal] -- this is a night where it's all about baseball and NASCAR coming together," Dee said. "I think it's ahead of what our expectations were. We didn't think of it in terms of annexing fans here in New England and we didn't think of it as an overnight project.

"What we wanted to do was expose the fans to the great personalities and the great sport of NASCAR, but over time. Television ratings are up and we see people wearing Roush Fenway gear and driver gear around the ballpark and around town, so our feeling is that it's well on its way.

"From a business standpoint, we've had sponsors who've come from one side of the fence to another and vice versa, such as AAA, which is the sponsor on the No. 6 Red Sox-branded car and they're the newest Red Sox sponsor. And that's a great example of how the two sides work together."

Roush, in his eminently low-key manner, also weighed in.

"I never thought about coming to Fenway Park, we were just interested in trying to make the marketing side of the business work as well as it could, and maybe get some perspective from somebody who'd been very successful in other forms of sport," Roush said. "John [Henry] called me and said he wanted to expand his sports portfolio, and I thought about the 14 million members of Red Sox Nation and what that would mean to our sponsors, and being able to come to Fenway Park and enjoy all the energy that goes with a ballgame a couple times a year is a wonderful thing.

"That's just a bonus that I had not expected. We're just getting started and we want to tie together the marketing efforts that Fenway Sports Group and the Fenway Sports Network have, and we haven't harnessed all that energy yet, but we've certainly been together on a number of promotions."

Even visitors Geoff Smith, president of Roush Fenway Racing, and former team manager Max Jones, who is currently a co-owner of Roush ally Yates Racing, looked excessively relaxed on the eve of this weekend's NASCAR action at the northern part of the alliance's home track, New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

The speedway's general manager, Jerry Gappens, was also recognized in pre-game ceremonies in which the five drivers were paraded around the warning track from center field in Ford F-150 pickups, a massive Roush Fenway Racing banner that covered the entire left field Green Monster was unfurled, and Ragan's Red Sox-branded No. 6 Fusion racecar also did a lap of the field.

Ragan threw out the ceremonial first pitch, which was over the plate but a tad low for a called strike, while both he and McMurray took pre-game batting practice.

For Ragan, a childhood Atlanta Braves fan from the real hey-days of that franchise in the 1990s, stepping into the batter's box of the unique ballpark was special enough before he spanked the equivalent of a few base hits.

"One thing I had in common with everyone here in Boston was I always hated the Yankees -- and that made me kind of an automatic Boston fan," Ragan said through a wide smile. "But this is a little different feel than being down on the field at [the Braves'] Turner Field.

"This has been here forever and there's a lot of heritage here -- a lot of cool things have happened here in the past, so it's certainly a lot of fun being here. It's awesome to think that Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb and Ted Williams, and of course today's greats, have all played here.

"It's like Darlington [and its place in racing history]. To get a top-five at Darlington before they paved it -- even to race there -- was awesome. Heritage and the history of all sports mean a lot to me, so it's good to be here and to be a part of all this activity."

How respectful was this kid? After finishing a snack, he went through a gate and walked midway up into the stadium to find a trash can to deposit his waste before doing an interview.

Per some clips viewed during the Red Sox 5-0 handling of the inter-league opponent Arizona Diamondbacks, McMurray wasn't as successful at the plate, but he couldn't put a price on his newfound love of the game.

McMurray, the defending champion of the upcoming Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, could even be forgiven for initially thinking Fenway's Monster, the towering green wall that looms over left field, was a mascot.

"I wasn't into baseball until we came up here last year," McMurray said of the inaugural Roush Fenway Racing Day. "Christy [his girlfriend] and I really got into this and even watched some of the games away from here, so we certainly looked forward to getting to come back.

"Christy and I and Katie [Kenseth] and Matt and Greg and Nicole [Biffle] all came up here to watch one of the World Series games, so it was pretty fun to do all that."

McMurray said he wasn't quite sure what it was about baseball that had latched onto him, but there was no mistaking the Boston aura.

“

I don't know, but this place, the park and the environment, the street out front, Yawkey Way -- it's just a real cool environment to get to be a part of ...

”

JAMIE McMURRAY

"I don't know, but this place, the park and the environment, the street out front, Yawkey Way -- it's just a real cool environment to get to be a part of, and especially when you and your wife or girlfriend both enjoy it, it's just a real good time."

The Wisconsin native Kenseth likened Fenway to another legendary facility for which he has a great feel and which he's stood on many times: The Green Bay Packers' home, Lambeau Field.

"It's like this, in a way -- it's a special place, when you walk out [on the field]," Kenseth said. "I've got to be honest, I never really watched a lot of baseball, even growing up, I only watched the [Milwaukee] Brewers a little bit.

"But when I first came here last year, it totally reminded me of going to Lambeau Field. I've been to a lot of football stadiums because I'm a big NFL fan -- to Super Bowls and Packers' away games -- and there's nothing nowhere near as special as when you walk out onto Lambeau Field for a football game. And this totally reminds me of that, because it's very original and still small and you feel all the history here when you walk in."

Kenseth said his newfound affinity for the Red Sox began when they routed the St. Louis Cardinals for the 2004 World Series title. Kenseth said he watched every game and "those were probably the first entire baseball games I'd watched in 20 years, but for sure, I pay a lot more attention now, watching games and looking at the standings in the newspaper to see how [the Red Sox] are doing."

That's exactly what the partners were trying to tie into when they did their deal, which was announced at the Chicago Cubs' A League facility, Jackie Robinson Ballpark, in Daytona Beach, Fla., during Speedweeks 2007.

But Edwards said there was no time for baseball in his busy schedule.

"I respect what these players do, but I don't really keep up with anything, that's the problem," Edwards said.

The Columbia, Mo., native gave the best possible example of how busy is as busy does. Years ago, while driving for Missouri team owner Mike Mittler in the Craftsman Truck Series, Edwards met St. Louis Cardinals' great Albert Pujols at one of the team's media days.

"Everybody was real excited and they were telling me, 'We're going to introduce you to Albert Pujols,'" Edwards said. "I thought that he must own the team or something. I figured he was a real important guy, but I was working on my dirt car, 24/7 [and I just didn't know]."

"He turns out to be the coolest guy ever. He gives me his cell phone number and tells me to come hang out at the field any time -- and I'm guessing he's a player, because he's a pretty big guy. Then I see him on the cover of Sports Illustrated a couple months later -- 'The greatest player that ever lived.' So I call him up and say, 'Dude, so you're pretty good at what you do, eh?'

"He came to watch my brother race a couple times at I-70 [a Missouri short track] and he's a nice guy. That was my first entry into baseball and now I get to be here with the Red Sox, and it's cool."

For better or worse -- even though the initial impression was apparently positive -- it ended there.

"No, he doesn't call me, either," Edwards said of Pujols, laughing. "I haven't talked to him since because I don't want to bother him. And my brother, the last time he saw [Pujols] he told him, 'You ought to call [Carl]' and [Pujols] said, 'Nah, I don't want to bother him.'

"But we'll run into each other someday. He's got a job, you know? But I'll see him around."

Biffle said his baseball fandom doesn't equal former Roush teammate Kurt Busch's well-known love of the Chicago Cubs, but he was close. Of all his teammates, Biffle might have had the best week of all following last weekend's West Coast race in Sonoma, Calif.

Biffle spent the better part of a day-and-a-half fishing with his dad at the driver's "southern home" in Mexico, where his catch-and-release program bagged a seven-and-a-half foot, 175-pound blue marlin and some mahi-mahi that ended up being dinner before heading to Boston.

"I don't think it gets any better than getting to spend time in Mexico with my dad, and then coming here to Fenway Park," said Biffle, who's expected to announce his quickly completed Roush Fenway contract extension this weekend. "I had a lot of fun because I hadn't seen my dad since November of last year, so it's been a long time [missing] holidays and Father's Day and things like that, so I was excited to go to Mexico.

"But I played baseball right up until high school. I'm not probably quite as much of a baseball guy as [Busch] is, but I love the game.

"And again, when Jack and John Henry did this deal, it couldn't have gotten any better for me, because number one, the Red Sox are one of the best teams in the sport, and I've gotten to meet just about all of their players -- they're a great group of guys, and I just enjoy the game and I enjoy the park. It's an incredible place, so what more could I have asked for than to be associated with this group?"

Whatever you can say about racers' busy schedules, it was a fact that the entire entourage of Roush Fenway drivers, three of whom attended with their wives or girlfriends, stayed at least into the eighth inning of the Red Sox 429th consecutive sellout all while many other "fans" were bailing out of what was a 2-0 ballgame at the time.

McMurray cited the fact that it was the perfect lead-in to a New England race weekend.

"I got home early Monday morning from Sonoma, then played golf [Tuesday]," McMurray said. "The [game day] interviews were low-key and it was really just about meeting the players and hanging out and getting to be a part of all these festivities."

McMurray said he hadn't yet met a player who was a huge race fan but that he and pitcher Josh Beckett had connected best, sometimes communicating away from either of their professions.

"Sometimes you hit it off with people and sometimes you don't," McMurray said of his connection with Beckett, who McMurray called an avid hunter, although McMurray's hunting involves golf balls.

Dee said his next step, after spending time with Ragan Wednesday, was getting into a Richard Petty Driving Experience car, or something similar.

"I was already hooked in January of 2007," Dee said through a grin. "But if you compared [his racing knowledge] in January of 2005 to today, I'm hooked, big -- I don't miss a race and I try to attend as many races as possible.

"When you have a rooting interest, it's easy to fall in love with this sport, and it's one of the great things this sport has to offer, is that everybody's got a favorite driver. And in that way we've tried to market our drivers, as well as the Roush Fenway Racing organization.

"We hope to take a regional passion for the Red Sox and attach that, in some form or fashion, into a regional passion for Roush Fenway Racing, and give them a rooting interest when they tune in, to say they're rooting for David Ragan or Matt Kenseth or Carl Edwards."

Dee said he saw parallels between the athletes from both organizations.

"First of all, [the drivers] are wonderful people, and they're very grounded in the sport and their place in the sport and the significance of what they're doing," Dee said. "I feel fortunate that we have the five guys that we do -- and as athletes, they're tremendous, with under-appreciated stamina and concentration and the athleticism that's necessary to do what they do.

"Some people don't think PGA golfers or even baseball players are athletes, compared to NBA or NFL players, but in each sport there's a specialty and a skill set that's needed, and certainly in NASCAR, stamina, endurance and concentration make these guys world-class athletes.

"They don't have to take a back seat -- no pun intended -- to any other sport."