PALM BEACH, Fla. ? Roger Parkinson remembers how it used to be in NASCAR, when smoking was the rule rather than the exception.

"Years ago, I think almost everybody smoked out there," said Parkinson, 50, a shock specialist for Chip Ganassi Racing. "You?d see the cars coming in with the hot tires with cigarette butts stuck all over them."

Crewmen, Parkinson said, "would tear the filters off the cigarettes and put them in their ears for ear plugs."

Cigarettes used to be as common as lugnuts in NASCAR, whose marquee racing series was sponsored by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and known as Winston Cup from 1971 through 2003. But Reynolds? withdrawal from the series opened the door for stopsmoking products.

GlaxoSmithKline, makers of Nicorette, NicoDerm and Commit stop-smoking aids, runs a program designed to help people in NASCAR quit the smoking habit. The company sponsors two cars, as well as a Busch Series race.

GlaxoSmithKline has commercials for Nicorette that salute some of the historic moments in the sport. The voice-over announcer is former Cup champion Benny Parsons, who along with fellow NASCAR legends Richard Petty, David Pearson, Ned Jarrett, Buddy Baker and Donnie Allison served as grand marshals for the Nicorette 300, the Busch Series race in March at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The six former drivers are supporters of efforts to help people stop smoking.

Parsons, 65, an analyst on NBC?s and TNT?s Nextel Cup coverage, recently was diagnosed with lung cancer.

"The first thing everyone asks me is, ?Are you a smoker?? " Parsons said. "The answer is that I smoked my last cigarette way back in 1978 and since then I?ve hated being around smoking."

GlaxoSmithKline?s entry into NASCAR represented a 180-degree turn for the sport.

"I?m sure that was a little awkward" for NASCAR, said Steve Kapur, senior brand manager for GSK. "Those relationships (existed) in excess of 30 years.

"We tried to be graceful in terms of our entry. We?re not about bashing what RJR has done. People have the right to decide to smoke. They also have the right to decide to quit. When they?re ready to quit, we?re ready to help them."

Parkinson was ready when the program, called QUIT Crew, began last year with the Ganassi operation. He had smoked since he was 18. The program, which combines use of the products with personal counseling and online assistance, helped him quit last September. It was his 50 th-birthday present to himself.

"This program was so much easier than I thought it was going to be," Parkinson said. "I tried quitting on my own several times, but I?d always fall back to it.

"With all the steps they had to help me with my mental attitude and how to focus on other things, I got through it really easily."

The program has been expanded this year, with Hendrick Motorsports, Petty Enterprises, Richard Childress Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing joining. Several NASCAR officials and media members are participating, too.

Tobacco use hasn?t been entirely quashed in NASCAR.

"I would say it?s dropped dramatically through the 20 years that I?ve been out here," Parkinson said, "but there?s still a lot of people who smoke out here.

"It didn?t help with Winston giving out free cigarettes every week."

The QUIT Crew program includes people from virtually all walks of life in NASCAR, with one notable exception ? drivers. But few drivers, especially the younger ones, smoke anyway.

The success rates for quitting smoking, Kapur said, "are higher than they are in the general population. I think it?s a result of the fact that they?re getting support from their buddies."

In addition to the QUIT Crew program, GlaxoSmithKline has an interactive exhibit, called The Winner?s Circle, at each Nextel Cup race.

"We mix fun with information," Kapur said, noting that the exhibit includes a racing simulator in the colors of Ganassi driver Reed Sorenson?s No. 41 car and a No. 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports show car. The company is an associate sponsor of both cars.

Also at tracks are stop-smoking counselors.

"Every weekend we counsel between 3,500 and 4,500 people at the exhibit who want to quit smoking," Kapur said. "That was my biggest concern ? would the fans accept us."