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“It affects all of us, anybody that’s in business,” said car owner Richard Childress. “Getting our cars to the racetracks costs a ton in gas money for the haulers. Bringing our people to the tracks, the rising costs of jet fuel. It’s very, very expensive to do what we’re doing.”
Childress, owner of a highly successful race team, isn’t complaining. Nor are the drivers who pull in multimillion dollar salaries and don’t flinch at $85 fill-ups on their luxury SUV’s.
But no one in NASCAR is immune to the weakening economy and rising costs on fuel. Just because they can afford it, doesn’t mean they aren’t feeling the pinch.
Under Sunoco’s deal with NASCAR, teams are provided free fuel at any sanctioned test, practice or race for all three top divisions. A company spokeswoman said it’s impossible to determine just how much fuel is used per weekend because of fluctuations in schedules, weather and the teams’ practice times each week.
When teams tested earlier this week at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, their gas was once again free.
But the good teams test a lot, traveling all over the South to facilities not sanctioned by NASCAR. Sunoco doesn’t cover those all-day sessions, and a race team typically brings a 55-gallon drum of gas to get them through the test.
“We’re really noticing it in credit card costs,” said Jay Frye, general manager of Red Bull Racing. “We’re getting bills back for thousands and thousands of dollars in diesel fuel that’s needed to get the haulers to the track each week. So every time gas prices go up, it affects our monthly budget because we’re paying a bigger gas bill than we did last month.”
Tony Stewart has seen the pinch up close, from sagging attendance at the racetracks he owns to helping the promoter at the dirt track in Talladega, Ala., dry the surface after a rain shower.
“I was down there with the track promoter just riding around in the pace car, helping try to run some of the water off the track,” he said. “The hard thing is you have guys with late models rolling around trying to get the track in and the racing gas there was $8 a gallon.
