- Sprint Cup stock cars will test electronic fuel injection for the first time this Thursday.
- The test session will be at Kentucky Speedway, which hosts its first Cup race this weekend.
- NASCAR announced in February that it would switch to fuel injection in 2012.
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — Kentucky Speedway, which will host its first Sprint Cup Series race Saturday, will also be the site of the debut test session for fuel-injected engines in the premier NASCAR series.
An open test on Thursday at the 1.5-mile trioval near Sparta, Kentucky, will be the first on-track test of the technology by Sprint Cup teams.
Electronic fuel injection is standard in production automobiles, but NASCAR has stuck with carburetors on the engines in its racing vehicles. The sanctioning body announced in February that it will switch to EFI in 2012.
The Charlotte Observer reported that each of the four manufacturers participating in Sprint Cup — Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Toyota — will have at least one car participating in the test session. All teams are eligible to participate in the open session, scheduled because some teams and drivers have no experience on the Kentucky track.
Freescale Semiconductor and McLaren Electronic Systems will provide the spec equipment that will be used by all teams. McLaren also provides the components used by Formula 1 and Izod IndyCar teams.
NASCAR officials used an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach in resisting the change-over to fuel injection over the past several decades, when carburetors became obsolete on passenger cars and trucks. Officials cited concerns about cheating by manipulation of electronic hardware and software.
The Quaker State 400 Saturday night will be the first race for what is now the Cup Series in the state since Lee Petty won a Grand National race at the half-mile dirt Corbin Speedway in 1954.
Inside Line says: NASCAR has gotten plenty of criticism for its reluctance to change, but perhaps stock-car racing engine builders deserve just a little bit of credit for getting such performance out of supposedly antiquated technology for so many years.
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calspecial68 says:
07:19 PM, 07/06/2011
"....cited concerns about cheating by manipulation of electronic software and hardware."
Really NASCAR?? F1 doesn't have these problems, hell, they even provided the components for you to test on your cars. At least catch up to the modern world only to be left behind again for DI.
stovt001 says:
08:11 AM, 07/06/2011
Fast-forward to the year 2031: Today NASCAR announced they will begin experimenting with a new development: the 5 speed transmission. According to a high-ranking NASCAR official, "We hear that some street cars may have already begun incorporating this technology, and this being the new and improved NASCAR, we're not going to be behind the curve on that one like we were with fuel injection. Some of the drivers have complained about the added complexity, asking if we're next going to make them turn the wheel to the right themselves rather than just hiring Boris Said when we go to those funny furrin-style "road courses" but NASCAR is committed to representing the latest in consumer-relevant automotive technology. With this change, the fan will notice hardly any difference between our stock car and the Camry in his driveway."
dg0472 says:
07:25 AM, 07/06/2011
http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/story-166027.html
Oh wow, are they really going to skip all the way into the 1990's and use MPI? At first they were just talking TBI. Color me almost impressed.
hollowtek says:
03:21 AM, 07/06/2011
Lol...........! They're kidding right? let me check my calendar.. nope it's not aprils foo.
dgmail says:
02:22 AM, 07/06/2011
Sorry, when Nascar let japanese turd-ota in, they lost me forever.
isend2c says:
07:47 PM, 07/05/2011
They shoulda just skipped fuel injection completely and gone right to DI... There's no reason not to.
@ akula1, +1,000
mce63 says:
06:23 PM, 07/05/2011
Touring cars is where Nascar aught to go. Their marketing machine could easily take over that type of racing and make it their own. As much as we make fun of them, the driving and wrenching talent could easily transition to touring cars.
The reason Nascar fans hate road courses is because the do them at venues like Watkins Glen where you can't see much of anything except on the monitors. Most modern tracks have infield road courses that would do just fine. I remember watching the old IMSA Camel GT races at Daytona, Pocono, and yes, even Charlotte. You could follow a car all the way around the track or just watch your favorite section of curves. And there would be a lot more of the racing essentials like fender banging and crashes if they used the infield course.
noobnox says:
05:03 PM, 07/05/2011
Is this a joke article that was supposed to be saved for next April fools day and got posted by mistake? Fuel injection of some sort has been mainstream since the late 80's..
angry_mushroom says:
04:05 PM, 07/05/2011
Fuel injection? Haven't we moved on to direct fuel injection?
iwant12 says:
03:54 PM, 07/05/2011
Hopefully this will end the tandem racing at the super speedways (which is just wrong IMO) and they'll get back to the draft-style racing. Good to see them moving forward, though.