The rot-gut whiskey powered good ol’ boys who turned their fleet flite from revenooers into stock car racing must be flipping their ‘40 Fords in their graves. Nah, on second thought, they’d be so proud that their Prohibition-defying race car culture has swept the nation they’d be bemused by the news. Nascar is going effete… uh, green.
Yes, while the main event remains a way to turn hydrocarbons into carbon dioxide and NOx and Sox, and disperse rubber particles hither and yon while making really loud music, the friendly stock car racers near you are cleaning up their ancillary activities. For example, Nascar supported the installation last year of 40,000 solar panels over 25 acres at Pocono Raceway, for an annual savings of $500k; it plants 10 mature trees after each race; at the Infineon track in Sonoma, CA, a small herd of sheep keep the grass trimmed (and probably fertilize it); and the Roush Fenway team recycles 96% of each car it builds, has banned styrofoam cups, and its workers now ride bicycles—BICYCLES!—around its North Carolina facility. Oily rags, lubricants, oil filters, and used fuels are being recycled (used fuels recycled?! That sounds like alchemy!), according to our source, an article in the New York Times. And the pace car of choice is now the Toyota Camry hybrid (don’t laugh!).
The big deal about this is probably not so much the pollution avoided as it is the example it sets for a demographic not known for its enthusiasm towards reducing carbon emissions and smog. (It would be a really good trick if they could somehow work a carbon tax into all this.)
Of course, putting the logo of American Ethanol, the PR group for the National Corn Growers Association, on the starter flags is not the best example in the world. It might be better of the ethanol were being distilled by the great grandchildren of those original moonshiners, from waste fruit from the local Food Lion, somewhere in the nearby hills.
Nascar hasn’t been about stock car racing in a very long time. It’s about merchandizing and market share.
Yeah, sad but true. Money changes everything.
No big change, there’s still alcohol in the trunks of all the cars. The founders would actually be proud!
NASCAR’s about racing? I though you had to know how to turn right (as well as left), and be able to run in the rain to be racing.
NASCAR has always been an elite racing league and requires an incredible amount of athletic skill to compete at its highest level. 200 mph is not a speed that just any driver can handle- even if they are “only turning left” as the shopworn joke goes.
The ethanol deal is aggravating (I’m looking at you, Kenny Wallace!).
The sport has gone down the toilet since the passing of T. Wayne Robertson and Dale Earnhardt.
People who cut the catalytic converters off of their vehicles and throw styrofoam containers out the window tend to have very little disposable income. The median income of those who drive a Camry Hybrid and shop at Whole Foods is $120k.
When you realize that the typical crowd at a NASCAR race has spectators from all fifty states, and also that a weekend at any of their venues isn’t exactly within reach of the stereotypical redneck, you may also realize that NASCAR thinks it’s worthwhile to try to attract the Camry Hybrid-driving Whole Foods shoppers.
Actually the first folks you describe will never have money to attend the races now. It is the second group that either have the money or the corporate connections to attend the races.
Next thing you know, they will be doing something really radical like using fuel-injected engines.
“Nascar supported the installation last year of 40,000 solar panels over 25 acres at Pocono Raceway, for an annual savings of $500k”
Savings? From solar panels? That’s hilarious!
http://www.nofreewind.com/2010/08/pocono-raceway-solar-project.html
“Ethanol is Devil!, Bobby Bouchet.”