Charlotte, N.C. — With NASCAR’s current fuel supplier announcing intentions to make its way out of the sport at the end of this year, there’s little wonder that the engine builders in the sport are showing some early anxiety signs.
Fuel, which in NASCAR-style racing dictates engine builds, is one of the often-overlooked commodities in racing. Tosco, the current supplier, offers remarkable consistency from track-to-track. Therefore, it’s very easy for engine builders to take the engine to the limit every week. In this costly process, all of the fuel used in NASCAR’s top series is made in one Texas-based refinery, then shipped directly to each track for dispensing to the teams gives the teams. But with a new entry on the horizon, that could change.
“They’ve been excellent even when we’ve had questions,” said Doug Yates, in his role of engine builder for Robert Yates Racing. “All the fuel comes out of one place and then they ship it east or west. It’s been a good product, but when there have been issues all their engineers will jump right on it and help us with things.
“We’re a little nervous about the next guy coming in so it would be nice to have some lead time on and just get some experience with running that fuel through the engines,” added Yates.
However, NASCAR Winston Cup Director John Darby gives an emphatic “No” to a change in blending from the new official supplier, which is scheduled to be named sometime later this year.
“Our goal in bringing a new fuel supplier on board would be that the competitors realize there’s a different sign at the fuel pumps and everything else is the same as it’s always been,” Darby said regarding his goals for the supplier change.
“A lot of that process is going on now with the fuel suppliers that we’re talking to, which there are a number of right now,” said Darby. “One of things they’re most amazed about is the accuracy and consistency of our current fuel from track-to-track-to-track all the way across the country.
“It’s unbelievable,” added Darby, nearly echoing Yates’ observations of the fuel’s consistency. “A lot of that comes just from the process of using it. So, in finding that new fuel supplier there’s a lot of work going on with our current supplier and a potential new supplier obviously until one’s really named that work won’t accelerate but those two are working together to ensure that.”
Darby told TFR that NASCAR hasn’t given out a recipe or formula for the fuel to any possible supplier, adding, “We’re not chemists. Anybody can go get a fuel sample from any one of our race tracks and they can figure that out. We don’t need to do that for them.” Darby added a “No,” reply to a possible switch to a no-lead blend during the changing of the fuel guard.
Yates explained, if needed, where he’d start with a no-lead package. “You just make some adjustments to the engine parts, the valve seats, valve seat material, the valves coated versus not coated and then how you treat them even down to how you jet them and how you set your carburetors up.”
“The fuel is ultra critical to everything we do as far as our tuning and as far as the way we go to construct the engine,” said Yates. “A couple of years ago, we were flirting with unleaded fuel and doing some things there. The engine parts didn’t look so good. It just takes adjusting the engine combination and the way we treat it during the weekend. So the sooner we know what we’re going to have to deal with the better off we’re going to be for next year.
