Several decades ago, during another fuel crisis, NASCAR stepped up and reduced the length of some of its races, doing its part to reduce fuel consumption.
At the same time, engine guru Robert Yates looked at the problem from a different angle.
Yates believed NASCAR would be better served to reduce the fuel consumption of the race cars. Yates started working on the issue.
Then the crisis passed and NASCAR went back to business as usual. Decades later, NASCAR still prides itself on being an “old technology” sport.
What other motorsports series still uses carburetors? What other car still uses a carburetor?
So, here's an idea for NASCAR, which has also had problems recently enforcing its detailed rule book: Let there be just one rule regarding engines – a miles-per-gallon rule.
Come 2010, a Sprint Cup car must average, say, 12 miles per gallon. For the Daytona 500, you would get 42 gallons of high-test gasoline. For the Brickyard 400, 33 1/3 gallons.
Teams could do whatever they wished with the engine as long as they averaged 12 miles a gallon. In 2012, the number would go to 14 miles a gallon. It would continue to go up two miles a gallon every other year until you reached a sensible figure of about 20 miles a gallon.
Sound too generous?
Right now, Sprint Cup cars average about 4½ to six miles a gallon – depending on the track and gearing. So we're asking teams to more than double fuel efficiency immediately and quadruple it over the next decade.
Yes, there would be a reduction in speed. But NASCAR has reduced speed over the years by changing the engine rules or introducing carburetor restrictor plates for the high-banked superspeedways at Daytona Beach, Fla., and Talladega, Ala.
If you don't want to scrub too much speed, reduce the weight from today's lumbering 3,400 pounds for a Sprint Cup car to, say, 2,700. You can still dial the safety into a 2,700-pound chassis – just ask the engineers in Formula One and IndyCar.
What about the Nationwide Series? Make its engines average two miles a gallon more than the Sprint Cuppers. The trucks would have the same formula as the Sprint Cup cars.
Would speed become an issue?
Truth is, speed is no longer a selling issue for NASCAR. We haven't seen 200 mph at Daytona in two decades. But the race grows in popularity annually.
Why?
Competition.
Most spectators can't tell the difference between 180 mph and 160 mph on the track. Few speed records fall annually in NASCAR, and many of those records date back more than a decade, to when the sport ran under different rules.
But spectators can remember a photo finish – many of which are actually created by NASCAR with late-race caution flags. Who cares if the pack is running at 170 rather than 190 at Talladega? The big one is still going to be the big one.
Could NASCAR double the mileage on its cars overnight – and reach 20 mpg by 2020? Absolutely. It could probably do better. The engine designers – and aerodynamic specialists – in NASCAR are some of the sharpest minds going.
They've just never been asked to go in the direction of miles per gallon.
Of course, the idea would face huge opposition.
For one, it would be expensive. Manufacturers estimate the cost of redesigning an engine at about $25 million. Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge might be hard-pressed to find that money in this economy, although the challenge might spark public interest. Toyota, which is already building fuel-economy cars that the American public is buying, might have a much easier time. Who knows, Honda might want to get into NASCAR under a fuel-economy rule. Ditto for BMW, which already builds powerful but efficient powerplants. Like Toyota, both makers build cars in the United States.
Detractors will argue that a fuel-economy rule would turn races into fuel-economy runs. Fact is, many races already are.
They also will argue that a fuel-economy rule would limit the amount of power available to a driver at the end of the race. Fact is, we already have those limitations at Daytona and Talladega and with the Car of Tomorrow.
Certainly, such a rule would change the face of NASCAR. For one thing, the roar that NASCAR equates to being “the thunder of America” would be altered. And it would bring it into the 21st century.
Bill Center: (619) 293-1851; bill.center@uniontrib.com
