Rush Limbaugh and Drew Barrymore take Jay Leno’s Green Car Challenge

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Because Jay Leno is on every weeknight now, he needs something besides his charming wit and sharp humor to keep us all entertained. Enter: the Green Car Challenge.

So far, the competitors have been a driver’s license-less Drew Barrymore (watch the video on Hulu) and Rush Limbaugh, who was his usual sunshiny and smiley self, particularly as he backed up the electric Focus to run over Al Gore’s cardboard cutout one more time. Watch the road rage for yourself in the video above.

In August, we wrote about NBC’s new nightly “The Jay Leno Show” and its Green Car Challenge segment. In the feature, a celebrity guest climbs behind the wheel of an electric Ford Focus ST and races around the track for two laps in the back lot behind Leno’s soundstage, competing against other guest celebrities’ times.

The first lap of the challenge is an ordinary, unobstructed race lap, but the second adds dangling cardboard cutouts of environmentalist gurus Al Gore and Ed Begley Jr., who are to be avoided if the driver doesn’t want a 1-second penalty. Ping-pong balls and party streamers are also launched at the car in the second lap, in hopes of slowing the driver down.

According to Autoblog, the show, which premiered Sept. 14, uses no ordinary Focus. Shipped to Dearborn, Mich., for six weeks of makeovers, Leno’s bright orange electric Focus boasts added Recaro racing seats, a full roll cage and a five-point racing harness. It weighs in at 3,421 pounds, mostly due to its 98 air-cooled, 60 Ah lithium ion batteries.

-- Kelsey Ramos

Video: Rush Limbaugh takes the Green Car Challenge on “The Jay Leno Show.” Credit: Hulu.