1on1 with ... Kevin Costner

He is an actor and musician, producer and director -- and die-hard sports fan.

Kevin Costner teamed with the NASCAR Foundation in February to help promote NASCAR Day 2009. With Costner's help through print, radio and television advertisements and other promotions -- including a music video that included legend Richard Petty -- the NASCAR Foundation has raised more than $1 million, which also included a concert with his band, Modern West, at Lowe's Motor Speedway prior to the All-Star Race.

It was there, resting comfortably in jeans, loose-fitting plaid shirt, Bass Outdoors ballcap and boots, that Costner sat for a spell and talked about all of the above and more ...

Could you talk a little bit about your involvement with the NASCAR Foundation and NASCAR Day, and the money you guys have helped raise for good causes?

I think that's pretty great, given the economic conditions that everybody else is facing. To turn around and ask people to dig into their pockets for someone they're never going to meet, I think says a lot about how the organization is doing and the message that they're putting out, that there are other people out there besides yourself.

How has your work with the NASCAR Foundation heightened your awareness of what goes on in the sport, and what do you find compelling about racing?

We wrote a song (Backyard) that had to do with NASCAR, and it struck a chord with Brian (France, chairman and CEO of NASCAR). He felt that the song really hit at the DNA of it.

You know, that there are guys who have dreams, and their cars sit in their yards and the neighbors aren't so happy about it. The wives ain't too happy about it, either. But there is like a level of dream, and the reality is that the car is going to need more than a fan belt. It just is. And maybe it's never going to run at all. But that notion of a dream is something that guys like to hold onto, and Brian really liked the song.

That came a little bit after the movie (Swing Vote). My friends and I wrote it for the movie, and Richard had a very small part in that movie. We were all taken with him, and we actually added a verse, which was:

The Dodge car is the fastest car NASCAR has ever seen;
I'll paint it Petty Blue, that's what I'll do; Just like the 43.

So we added that verse. And when he said good-bye to us, I went out and sang it to him. And he was, I think, very touched by it. And so that song organically found its way to NASCAR. You take the kind of business sensibility of Brian and Brad Ball (vice president of entertainment and marketing for NASCAR and the NASCAR Media Group) -- and you say, 'Wait a second. We don't have a theme. We don't have eight notes that define race day.' ... And they started thinking about the song that way. Brad, I had worked with at Warner Brothers. So we began a dialogue and they've been very graceful with me. (Continued)