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A Greener NASCAR? John Darby, the Sprint Cup tour boss, says it's coming
NASCAR's John Darby (grey shirt) pitches in to push Denny Hamlin's car (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
By Mike Mulhern
mikemulhern.net
CONCORD, N.C.
With President Obama making the strong case this week for more fuel-efficient cars out of Detroit, and with the heads of all the car makers there at the White House, what's the take in the NASCAR garage on what this sport should be doing to be more green?
NASCAR's John Darby, head of the Sprint Cup series, says it's nice to look at racing more fuel-efficient engines, or using more fuel-efficient fuels, and all that, but he says NASCAR's main point right now is this:
"We have been, for the last five years, looking at green – at alternative fuels, at new engine designs.
"But we feel we can have a huge effect on being environmentally friendly by attacking the biggest group we deal with – our fan base and our competitors in the garage.
"For example, you have a choice when you rent a car, so rent a hybrid. Or put four people in a car; you don't need four cars. Those kinds of things.
"Our great initiative right now is in the two new office buildings going up, the Hall of Fame here, and one in Daytona. Both of those are going to be green-certified. We are doing a lot of things internally.
"Do the race cars matter? Yes. And will some day they come into that loop, yes.
"But right now we can make more progress and be more effective, in the grand scheme of things, and we can make more progress by working on the big picture and the things around us first.
"….knowing that, yes, there will be a fuel that's 'right,' that there will be fuel-injection, a lot of changes. Unfortunately they take longer to work through than the simpler things."
Now NASCAR got burned, in a sense, by Detroit's V-6 push back in the early 1990s. That engine, it turned out, was not ready for prime-time racing.
So it's understandable that NASCAR executives might be more than a bit leery of following Detroit down the road to precisely. After all this is the entertainment business, more than Advanced Passenger Car Design School.
E-85? That's a highly touted mix of 15 percent gasoline and 85 percent farm-based ethanol.
"This is my personal opinion, that that's not the best plan," Darby says. "You don't want to make changes just to make changes.
"There are better fuels, more practical fuels.
"You can argue that the (corn-based) alcohol (fuel) program is at the expense of making fuel for cars over the food we eat. Now I don't necessarily support that. But there are better many opportunities for better fuels."
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No Such Thing As "Greener" Fuels
Barack Obama made no strong case for more fuel-efficient cars, all he did was grandstand while the real world beats him in one policy battle after another.
"Rent a hybrid." They're a fuel-efficiency hoax. "Car pool." No. Different people have different schedueles, and yes John Darby you DO need four cars.
Ethanol is not better than carbon-based fuels, and it only exists because of massive government subsidies. The whole environmental argument is bogus because the environment is not now and never was in any danger. NASACR needs to ignore this altogether.
Bring on the electrics!!!!
Bring on the electrics!!!! Woo-hoo. 43 cars screaming, err, whispering by you at 150+ mph. At least we could hear all of the tire squeals with no motor noise.
Seriously, though, auto racing is not "green" and never will be. The cars have never been fuel efficient and cannot be to do what they are supposed to do. They are supposed to go fast, and fast is not fuel efficient.
If the IRL can run on 100%
If the IRL can run on 100% ethanol and their cars are still as fast as ever then why can't NASCAR make the switch? NASCAR needs to set an example on the track, not just off the track, because their example on the track carries would have a much bigger influence. If ethanol isn't practical for a stock car then develop an alternative fuel that is. As usual, NASCAR is never the leader in situations like this. They always lag well behind others whether it's safety or alternative fuels or drug testing or whatever. They're always reactive and never proactive.
Race cars can run on ethanol,
Race cars can run on ethanol, but let's not kid ourselves that it's the solution to weening the world from gasoline and that NASCAR should be the "leader" of that solution. All ethanol currently does for consumers is drive up the price of milk and milk-based goods. The weather during growing season could negatively affect ethanol prices much worse than a hurricane does gasoline prices should we someday use that for our main fuel source. If NASCAR someday switches to ethanol, fine, but berating them for using gasoline is weak when 99% of all other Americans with cars use it also.
Ethanol Isn't Practical As It Is
Ethanol has been in use since the 1890s and has never proven to be efficient in any way. It was off the market by 1940 and only exists today because of massive government subsidies and their resulting mammoth lobbying effort.
See - http://www.aei.org/outlook/28396
hybrids not efficient?
I rented a Prius for a week and averaged 49 mpg. I've also rented other cars and paid attention to gas milage...Cobalt 34 mpg, Impala 30 mpg, Malibu 31 mpg, HHR 29 mpg. All recent model years, '08 and '09, and mostly highway miles. Not a myth, hybrids can offer significant fuel savings.
People have different schedules? Most races I've been to, most people show up around the same time, between 30 minutes to 2 hours before the scheduled start, and leave after the race is over. If there was more car pooling, there would be less of a mess getting out of the races. Forget about environmentalism, it just makes sense to reduce the amount of cars at the track. And it also cuts down on the amount it costs to go to a race.
We should be doing more to reduce the amount of petroleum we use. I'm not some green wacko, I just don't like giving wads of cash to the countries that currently supply our fuel.
NASCAR can do more. I don't believe the sport of racing uses a lot of fuel right now, compared to so many other activities in this country. But NASCAR can impact what kinds of cars its fans think are cool and can promote smaller, more fuel efficient technology. The worst that can happen is we'll go back to 1990 horsepower levels and get larger restrictor plate openings.
Next generation biofuels could be answer
Major NASCAR sponsor Shell could help the sanctioning body lead the way with new - non food based - ethanol.
What a superb platform NASCAR could be for Shell and Codexis (Shell's partner) to promote this next generation of fuel construction technology.
Obviously it could work to NASCAR's benefit as well by being seen as an early adopter on this issue.
Sources:
http://www.codexis.com/wt/page/pr_1236638886
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol (with usual Wiki caveats)
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