NASCAR

[Steve]

They're not for fuel economy.

They 'restrict' the amount of air through the intake to act as essentially a governor to prevent the cars from going over a certain speed under their own power.

Yes, but speed uses more fuel exponentially.  If they want to increase fuel economy they will slow down on their own.  The restrictor plate won't be needed.

This one I can't get behind. A full pit stop (4 tires and Fuel) takes about 20 seconds, and at a race like the Daytona 500 they'll need to pit 4 times assuming no issues. In order to somehow save enough fuel to only need 3 stops, you'd have to slow the car down dramatically-way more than a 20 second lap difference.

[acme54321]

This is why I suggested the format change.  Make it a team sport instead of an individual sport.  It would make it a lot more interesting.  It works for cycling and that is just guys riding bicycles.

Personally I think the best thing NASCAR could do is throw away their existing rules and bring back the rules and format from 1999, with some safety rules added but I'm far from a NASCAR expert. You might be right.

The best thing they could do would be go back to what they were doing in the glory days.  Go fast and crash big.  It pays the bills.

[Kerry]

They're not for fuel economy.

They 'restrict' the amount of air through the intake to act as essentially a governor to prevent the cars from going over a certain speed under their own power.

Yes, but speed uses more fuel exponentially.  If they want to increase fuel economy they will slow down on their own.  The restrictor plate won't be needed.

This one I can't get behind. A full pit stop (4 tires and Fuel) takes about 20 seconds, and at a race like the Daytona 500 they'll need to pit 4 times assuming no issues. In order to somehow save enough fuel to only need 3 stops, you'd have to slow the car down dramatically-way more than a 20 second lap difference.

It takes over a full lap to get back up to speed at Daytona, and that doesn't include the time from first letting off the gas to pit in the first place.  That extra stop would put you a lap down which is practically impossible to make up on a superspeedway.

[Steve]

They're not for fuel economy.

They 'restrict' the amount of air through the intake to act as essentially a governor to prevent the cars from going over a certain speed under their own power.

Yes, but speed uses more fuel exponentially.  If they want to increase fuel economy they will slow down on their own.  The restrictor plate won't be needed.

This one I can't get behind. A full pit stop (4 tires and Fuel) takes about 20 seconds, and at a race like the Daytona 500 they'll need to pit 4 times assuming no issues. In order to somehow save enough fuel to only need 3 stops, you'd have to slow the car down dramatically-way more than a 20 second lap difference.

It takes over a full lap to get back up to speed at Daytona, and that doesn't include the time from first letting off the gas to pit in the first place.  That extra stop would put you a lap down which is practically impossible to make up on a superspeedway.

But a lap takes 45 second to complete, going 200mph (keeping numbers round as most laps are between 190 and 195) True that it takes time to get up to that speed, but in order to save any amount of fuel, you'd have to slow down dramatically. You're taking about being able to complete the race with 3 stops vs. 4. A NASCAR fuel tank is 18.5 gallons (so they get about 6mpg). This means you'd need to get 67 laps out of a tank of gas (167 miles vs. 125) so you'd have to get almost 9mpg. In order to gain a 50% improvement in fuel economy, you'd have to slow down a ton (that fuel economy is probably caution lap performance). You'd be lapped likely every 7-8 laps at those speeds, far worse than stopping one more time.

[Kerry]

You might be right but consumption isn't linear with speed.  With restrictor plates they go about 195.  Bill Elliott went 212 without a restrictor plate.  How many less laps can you go at 212 than at 195?

[Steve]

You might be right but consumption isn't linear with speed.  With restrictor plates they go about 195.  Bill Elliott went 212 without a restrictor plate.  How many less laps can you go at 212 than at 195?

I feel like this is a middle school math problem.

I mean 45 seconds is 200mph at Daytona. 50 seconds is 180mph. So, if driver 1 was going 200 mph and driver 2 was going 180, driver 2 would get lapped on lap 9. By lap 50 you be lapped 5 times by going 20mph slower.

[Kerry]

I think you miss understood me.  I surmised that without restrictor plates they would still do 195 for the milage benefit.  The need for fuel economy would replace the restrictor plate.  I'm not a NASCAR fuel expert so I don't know the answer.