Aug 21, 2006

Unleaded Gas Passes NASCAR Test

From the beginning NASCAR has always been about green, namely the color of money.  Its pursuit of dollars is as American as apple pie.  But now NASCAR's bid to make its series a bit greener in the environmental sense is moving forward.  NASCAR officials said that their plan to test unleaded fuel went off without a hitch recently and so the series is still maintaining its efforts to switch to unleaded racing fuel in all of its series, including the prestigious Nextel Cup, in 2007, which we figure is next year.

Rather than risking an embarrassing failure in a highly scrutinized Nextel Cup race, NASCAR decided to test unleaded gas in the recently contested St. Louis area Busch series race.  That experiment, the first of a four-week series of tests that also involves ARCA cars and the truck series, was completed with no reported problems.  More tests are planned through the end of the month, which should give the new fuel a rigorous examination in the most challenging weather conditions of the year.  Around Labor Day, NASCAR officials will pow-wow with engine builders and representatives from Sunoco, its official fuel supplier, to determine if there are any issues involved in moving forward with the switch.  If there are no problems, the series is expected to make the complete switch to unleaded gasoline in 2007.

Since the Clean Air Act of 1970 effectively banned lead from passenger car gasoline in a phased program, it might seem that NASCAR is miles behind the curve in removing the poisonous element from its fuel.  But auto racing was specifically excluded from the provision of the act and, in the spirit of why fix it if it ain't broke, NASCAR has continued to use leaded racing fuel for decades.  Early in this millennium it finally looked into the possibility of going lead-free, but when Unocal, its previous fuel supplier decided to withdraw from the series at the conclusion of the 2003 season, its efforts were stymied.  Now it seems poised to make the move that most of us made by 1975 or so.