NASCAR prides itself on being a family sport, and gives its competitors Mother’s Day off.

But some of the drivers don’t have to wait until that special day to spend considerable time with their mothers.

Randy MacDonald doesn’t need to look very far to see his mother, Pat, as he competes in the Craftsman Truck Series.

She is MacDonald Motorsports’ key administrator, manning the phones in the office, running the day-to-day operations and handling paperwork and finances.

At the track and on the road, Mrs. MacDonald is team scorer, cook and travel agent.

“Without my mother doing all she does, I wouldn’t know which plane to get on, what rental car to drive off the lot and what hotel we are staying in,” said MacDonald, whose sister, Teri MacDonald-Cadieux, is expected to make her truck racing debut next month.

“I want to be there when my kids are involved on the track, although sometimes it’s overwhelming,” said Mrs. MacDonald, whose husband, Marrill, owns the team’s No. 72 Chevrolets. “I’m honored by their trust and humbled by it also.”

It’s also a family affair for Judy Benson, mother of Winston Cup driver Johnny Benson. She’s been a racing wife to husband John since 1956 and a racing mother to her son for more than 20 years.

“I go to about 10 races a year. Most of the time friends and I sit in the stands,” Mrs. Benson said. “Do I cheer? Well, yes.

“At Bristol this year when Johnny was running second in the final laps, I was screaming like it was a Saturday night short track. I think everyone sitting anywhere near us knew that I was his mother.”

Although Johnny is sidelined for the moment with a broken rib, the result of a crash in a Busch Series race earlier this month in Richmond, Va., Judy Benson says she doesn’t wish her son had chosen another sport? Never.

“I don’t know anything about other sports,” she said. “We are a racing family.”

For racers, mother often is the parent who holds the family together.

“For a lot of us that grew up in racing homes, certainly our mothers were kind of a key figure there because our dads were gone a lot,” said former Cup champion Dale Jarrett, whose father, Ned, also is a former champion. “I think it’s very appropriate it’s one of the weekends we have off and allows us to spend time with our families.”

NASCAR also gives the drivers a break on Easter weekend. With the 36-race Winston Cup schedule, the only other weekend off will be June 29-30, the week before the Pepsi 400 in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Presidential nod: George W. Bush, a longtime NASCAR fan, will be the grand marshal via videotape for The Winston on May 18 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

President Busch will deliver the command for drivers to start their engines for the non-points invitational event.

His taped remarks also will speak to the resolve of the American people in the aftermath of the tragedies of Sept. 11.

Pay raise: A record $10,961,324 in posted awards, as well as a possible $1 million bonus, awaits competitors in five divisions during the race activities over the next two weeks at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

That represents a $1.5 million increase over the posted awards for the same events a year ago, with the biggest jump realized by competitors The Winston.

The base purse for NASCAR’s annual all-star event jumped from $2 million to $3 million. In addition, $1,780,704 in television money for The Winston will be added to the Winston Cup Series car-champion owner program.

The winner of the made-for-TV race will take home a minimum of $750,000.

Drivers in the Coca-Cola 600 on May 26 will compete for $4,806,814, an increase of $469,767 over last year.

Sterling Marlin, Jeremy Mayfield, Mark Martin, rookie Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart the top five finishers in March at Las Vegas will get a $1 million bonus as part of the Winston No Bull 5 program if any of them should win the 600-miler. Pole night for the 600 pays $56,000.

The rest of the speedway money will be spread out among races involving the Busch, ARCA, Goody’s Dash and World of Outlaws competitors.

Stat of the week: Jeff Gordon, still looking for his first victory of 2002, and the late Dale Earnhardt are the only three-time winners of The Winston. Both Terry Labonte and the late Davey Allison won the all-star event twice.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won in 2000, becoming the only rookie to do so.