Fuel Injection coming to NASCAR?
03/23/10 This rumor is upgraded to 'fact' today. 2010 will be the last season for carbureted engines in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup series. NASCAR vice president for competition Robin Pemberton confirmed Tuesday that the series is on target to replace carbureted engines with fuel injected models for 2011.
11/19/09 Several sources, including a NASCAR Sprint Cup crew chief and a manufacturer's representative, have confirmed that the sanctioning body intends to replace carburetors with fuel injection on Sprint Cup engines in 2011. The move has been discussed for several years, but in a meeting between NASCAR representatives and representatives of the manufacturers held after the Talladega race, the plan was reportedly presented to those in attendance. Orlando Sentinel
09/27/09 Richard Childress predicts that NASCAR will go to fuel injection in 2011. Childress has a share company that builds Chevrolet motors. He says "we're constantly working on it right now.''
Robin Pemberton, vice president of competition for NASCAR, said that series officials met with teams about it last week.
"It wasn't about ideas, it was about laying out the groundwork … with fuel injection,'' Pemberton said. "We're right in the very, very early stages of all of that.''
08/22/09 Brian Wolfe, director, Ford North American Motorsports, was last night's Newsmaker on The Race Reporters show. Wolfe said he's in favor of fuel injection for NASCAR engines, that Ford will debut its new Cup engine before this season is finished, and that technical assistance is available to teams which might want to change manufacturers for the 2010 season. As for the No. 1 reason Ford remains committed to motorsports, Wolfe said:
"The main selling point in all of motorsports is about marketing. We have a couple of different metrics we use. J.D. Powers has a survey and we also have an internal survey. What we find in both of those surveys is somewhere between 45 and 50 percent of people that are market-active are race fans. So, if you want to appeal to a large portion of the car-buying public, racing is a great way to do that. Also, then, you look at the favorable opinion of Ford Motor Co. for race fans vs. non-race fans, we see that we get a significant improvement. It's just working."
[Editor's Note: AR1.com has criticized NASCAR for 9 years about the carburetors they run and how they had no tie to customer passenger cars, which are all fuel injected. Now all of a sudden when fans are walking away from the sport in record numbers, NASCAR is finally beginning to understand that their dumbed down managed racing doesn't sit well with today's sophisticated younger generation so they are now looking at fuel injection. Well what about direct injection, which is the way engine technology is moving?]
08/21/09 NASCAR is researching the possibility of moving from engines with carburetors to fuel injection. Officials met with top engine builders from organizations earlier this month to discuss the move of that technology and others that would make cars more fuel efficient and more like cars on the manufacturer showroom floor. Manufacturers switched fully from carburetors to fuel injection in the 1980s. No timetable has been set for when fuel injection could be used, but Toyotas Lee White said his company could be ready to go by the 2010 opener at Daytona if NASCAR gave the go-ahead. "I would vote for it," White said on Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway. "No question, because everyone right now is spending an absolute fortune on [carburetor technology] that has absolute zero application in real life." White said all manufacturers need to be more conscious about the environment to survive, and he believes NASCAR needs to move more in that direction. "Sit in the grandstands and watch these cars go into Turns 1 and Turns 3 and watch all the fuel belching out the tailpipe," he said. "That’s wasted fuel that’s going right into the grandstands in terms of lead poison." White said the transition could be made easily and without great expense. "Its something that could be implemented along with a few other things that could be discussed that could potentially reduce costs and increase the potential audience for the sport," he said. ESPN
08/17/09 When NASCAR Sprint Cup director John Darby, a few weeks ago, raised the issue of 'fuel injected' racing engines in NASCAR, it raised eyebrows. NASCAR Cup engines are some of the most technically advanced engines in racing, except for the antique carburetors. Every other major form of racing, even ASA, uses fuel injected engines. NASCAR has long shied away from things electronically complicated like electronic fuel injection, for fear, with goodly reason, that the mechanical wizards on these racing teams might figure out a way to put some tricks in that electronic box. However NASCAR officials are raising the issue to team owners of fuel injected engines, possibly in the Truck series as soon as next season, according to one scenario, and asking how owners think NASCAR ought to police it. "We think fuel injection is just the right way to go in NASCAR," Pat Suhy, Chevrolet's NASCAR field director, says. "And it wouldn't be that difficult. Every other top racing series uses fuel injection. We could put something together in about a week depending on how simple or complex you wanted to do it and then test it for two months or so, and be ready to go." MikeMulhern.net