At Small Tracks, High Fuel Prices Put Racers in a Pinch

[Silverback51]

It's not just the small guys at small tracks either.

Last week at the NHRA races, they only had 15 Top Fuel cars. At a couple other races they only had 15, but were able to bring in a local car to fill the field.

A few years ago they would have 32 plus cars competing for the 16 Pro Stock qualifing positions. Now they are down to the low 20's in car count.

Times are bad for a lot of people.

[Don]

"Last week at the NHRA races, they only had 15 Top Fuel cars. At a couple other races they only had 15, but were able to bring in a local car to fill the field ".

It was also mentioned that there is a shortage of the Fuel being used which has another impact on participation

The Sunoco race fuel used in the top three NASCAR series, does anyone know whether the fuel is provided free or ?

[Ron61]

Don,

When Sunoco took over from Philips 66 as the NASACAR fuel provider it was all free. But I am not sure that it is now. If you listen to the broadcasters the past year it seems every other word out of their mouth is Sunoco Racing Gas. They never used to mention the gas except that the cars had to make a stop to fuel up. I have looked on the NASCAR site for a long time and I once saw a small blurb that they may have to start paying for fuel about the time they stated talking about going to unleaded fuel.

Ron

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Originally Posted by Don

"Last week at the NHRA races, they only had 15 Top Fuel cars. At a couple other races they only had 15, but were able to bring in a local car to fill the field ".

It was also mentioned that there is a shortage of the Fuel being used which has another impact on participation

The Sunoco race fuel used in the top three NASCAR series, does anyone know whether the fuel is provided free or ?

Yes,it's free to the race teams, that's part of the sponsorship package..............

Bought some last year in Nashville at the NASCAR track there....seems whatever fuel was left over after the race was left in the track fuel tank-----for free----and they sold it to us for about 5 bucks a gallon.........

David

[Ron61]

David,

I think it was early this year that I was watching one of the practice sessions and most of the cars were having problems with running well. They got to checking and found they had left some fuel in a tank and it had set so long that when they filled it with new fuel it was all contaminated. I believe they said they had to pump that whole tank out and dispose of it. That had to have been an expensive waste.

Ron

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Ron;

Yep, they had problems before, also at one Cup event some cars ran badly, they found water in the tank......race gas for NASCAR is probably MORE prone to comtaminants and water than at your local station down the road, simply becuase of how long is may be stored and transported to the varouis tracks........

David

[Ron61]

David,

I used to buy my race gas in 55 gallon barrels and it never went up like the gas at the stations did, but was always higher. Then the last barrel I got it had really gone out of sight and I asked them what happened and they said the company had just raised the price. I still have about 15 gallons in my last barrel and am afraid to find out what it costs now. But because there wasn't such a demand for it, the price used to stay pretty stable.

Ron

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Ron;

I do the same thing and know what you mean...
Got a buddy that is an old Mustang guy and an EXXON distributor,he lets me have my race gas at his cost as long as I buy it by the drum....
Last time I got gas from him was a little over a year ago, bought 2 55 gal. drums of 100 octane low lead gas, my cost $3.25 per gal.......hate to see what it is now, good thing I still have one un-opened drum left, should last me almost one race season......

I'm guessing the same gas today would be around $5.50 per gal. or more.........
I hear 110 octane leaded is over 8 bucks a gal.,depending on where you get it......

David