Loose in Turn 3: The Price of Gas These Days

by Bruce Simmons

It's Friday and we've survived another week of fun filled work. That means we're coming at your with another edition of Loose In Turn 3 (LIT3) Despite most of them being millionaires, or dang close to it, NASCAR drivers are saying that even they are feeling the pinch at the pump.

Traditionally, airplane fuel has always been much more expensive than automobile fuel and the teams are feeling the pinch more acutely as they shuttle everything everywhere: team members by plane, equipment by 18-wheeler. Eesh, that has got to be expensive with the oil system being able to freely boost and dump oil prices at their own whim.

The Gillett Evernham shop says it costs ~$1500 to fill up their semi that hauls around 80,000 lbs of equipment each weekend. For them, the last track, Infineon, was fairly pricey for them since their haulers had to make 2 stops going, and 2 stops coming from the track to the shops.

At the track, all the fuel is supplied by Sunoco, who we are reminded by the airwave media every time they mention the gas, it's the Sunoco gas. (Has to be some concerted effort via a request to be more consistent in their product placement. My guess, Sunoco wants to make sure there's no confusion about who the official fuel is while Shell sits on Kevin Harvicks Chevrolet.)

This upcoming weekend, Sunoco (The official Fuel... on never mind) will be bringing nearly 3,000 gallons of race fuel for the NASCAR event at New Hampshire. By all estimations, each team will be using about 64 gallons of gas just for Sunday alone.

The fuel is a special make of fuel designed for the race cars themselves, and is made in a refinery in Marcus Hook, Pa., near Philadelphia.

Obviously NASCAR is aware that folks are eying the sport in these fuel pricey times. NASCAR says:

"The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series uses about 135,000 gallons of fuel, racing from Daytona and all the way through to the [season-ending] Ford 400 [in Homestead, Fla.]. And that compares to 360 million gallons used by Americans every day."

(Ouch, why don't they just come out and say it: Carpool or pedal to work!)

With that in mind, I thought I'd toss out the following question to my LIT3 Gang:


Fuel prices are going up and up. Everyone, everywhere is feeling the pinch in every aspect of our lives. Our beloved sport is starting to be looked at as a gas guzzling sport. Should NASCAR and Sunoco make a concerted effort to convert the sport over to a less fossil fuel centric sport?

Bruce: No. Not yet. Some say it's necessary as our supply of crude dwindles, so inevitably, something has to give. But as far as costs and environmental impact goes, on the surface, ethanol looks attractive. The underlying costs of farming, processing and converting the crops into Ethanol offsets most conservation that is initially apparent, never mind the pollution that comes from the efforts noted. Solar NASCAR. It just doesn't have the same punch now, does it?

Charlie Turner:(OnPitRow) Nope. That wouldn't solve the gas price problem. This is too big an issue for NASCAR. Leave it to the manufacturers and politicians. They have to do the big work on this issue.

Tim Zaegel:(DoYouNASCAR) Look, I'm all for limiting the use of oil in every sense of our everyday lives that we possibly can, but with or without NASCAR or any other motorsports - this problem lies within the realms of since an politics. I think we're headed there, though, because alternative energy is the next step that our nation needs to take to stay ahead of the curb. So, in that essence, NASCAR needs to start thinking ahead. Manufacturers and oil companys are already planning for the next phase, and NASCAR needs to do the same. There's no need to impliment any sort of alternative fuel policies with the sport just yet, but they need to be ready for the day that the rest of the country does in fact go green.


Of course, the boys had their own questions to ponder in the group:
Charlie (OnPitRow) asks: After what we saw at Infineon Raceway, is there still a place for "road course ringers" in the Cup Series?
Tim (DoYouNASCAR) Pondered: Can the no. 16 team keep it together long enough through the next 10 races to keep Greg in Chase contention?


Inspiration for my article / question: http://www.boston.com