NASCAR going to ethanol in 2011

NASCAR has long been known for high performance, gas guzzling V8 engines but starting in early 2011, every lap run in NASCAR sanctioned events will be powered by Sunoco Green E15 Ethanol.

Sunoco’s Green E15 is a 15% ethanol blend, comprised of ethanol made from American-grown corn, allowing the NASCAR race cars and trucks to not only release less harmful gases into the environment but also eases the reliance on “foreign oil”. This new E15 will be used in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, the Nationwide Series, and the Camping World Truck Series and Sunoco promises that this “greener” gas will provide the same high performance, high speed racing as the 98 octane Sunoco 260 GTX unleaded gasoline that it is replacing – essentially changing nothing but the dependence on foreign oil for racing.

There has been an on-going debate about whether or not a switch to E15 and other corn-based ethanol is a positive move for consumer vehicles as vehicles designed to run on both gasoline and alcohol blends often get far worse fuel economy when running the blended fuel. However, when NASCAR proposed this change to their race teams earlier this year, those teams began working the E15 into their current engine development programs and in some cases, these race engines built specifically for E15 have made more power than their gasoline-run counterparts.

The new Sunoco Green E15 race fuel will be produced at the company’s fuel facility in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania using ethanol refined at Sunoco’s ethanol manufacturing facility in New York. After being blended, the E15 will be trucked to the various race venues where the fuel will be delivered directly to the race teams for the days of racing, rather than being sent to the track ahead of time and left to sit in underground tanks where condensation can negatively impact the quality of the fuel.

To offer a little more information about the new Sunoco Green E15, the company has offered a video explaining the ins and outs of this green race fuel and you can view the video by clicking here.