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Driving to an End: NASCAR’s Impact on the Environment

I hate NASCAR.  Hate it.  I can see cars driving anywhere and at any time.  The last thing I want to do is watch 500 miles of it on a track that goes nowhere.  Yes, I have heard it all, “It’s the environment and the people surrounding the race”, and “THEY ARE JUST SO FAST, IT’S AWESOME”.  I get it.  Not to knock these…drivers?  I certainly can’t call them athletes, though what they do is very dangerous.  But I just feel that it takes no athletic skill to drive a car at high speeds.  Maybe I just haven’t done it, but I feel that it has more to do with mental awareness and attentiveness.But that is not the real thing that bugs me about NASCAR.  With all the talk today about Global Warming and oil consumption, I have yet to hear anything about the “sport” that harms the environment on a regular basis.
Let us start with fuel consumption.  According to NASCAR itself, approximately 6,000 gallons of fuel are used during a normal Nextel Cup race.  6,000.  With 36 races during a NASCAR season, the number is scary.  My Corolla gets approximately 28-32 miles per gallon.  The average NASCAR racecar?  Two to five miles per gallon.  And here’s an interesting fact.  Did you know that NASCAR vehicles are, for the most part, unregulated by the Environmental Protection Agency?  This includes not having to use mufflers, catalytic converters or other emissions control devices.
The amount of fuel used and the resulting air pollution is not the only environmental impact.  We must also remember the people attending the race as spectators, or just as tailgaters.  The Talladega Superspeedway has a capacity of approximately 175,000 people.  That is more than the populations’ of Andorra and Liechtenstein combined.  Think of how much trash that creates.  Cigarette butts, soda and beer cans, any and every type of food wrapper, and portable toilets as far as the eye can see.  With that amount of garbage created during every race, I am surprised that each speedway does not have a landfill right next to the track.
But I cannot fault them completely, NASCAR has started to change their environmental ways.  For instance, NASCAR’s tire supplier Goodyear immediately shreds tires on site. They then recycle the tire shreds and use it as composite material.  NASCAR also has teamed up with Safety-Kleen, a company that recycles oil, re-refines motor oil, and is able to properly dispose of brake fluid, oil filters, coolant and cleaning solvents.
I never thought that a spectator “sport” could cause so much environmental trouble.  NASCAR is on their way to making their competition more eco-friendly, but they still have a long way to go.  However, without more pressure from organizations like the EPA or fans themselves, NASCARs environmental impacts will never be as controlled as they need to be.

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6 replies on “Driving to an End: NASCAR’s Impact on the Environment”

good thought, but length man. You only brought up 2 points about how NASCAR burns alot of fuel and generates a ton of trash. Then you jump to how NASCAR has started to learn more toward the green. Develop the argument more, and just a personal thing but those choppy sentences might be effective in a speaking type atmosphere, but reading them isn’t as effective. An example would be when you just said “6,000.” Also, remember that your Corolla gets that high MPG whereas NASCAR cars get the crappiest MPG of them all because their engines have more horsepower and pull more RPMs than ur Toyota does.

Don’t take it personally, just some constructive critiscm.

Thanks Thanks, I appreciate the constructive criticism.  I will keep it in mind during writing my next article.  As for length, all I can say is “it was late and I was tired” (Gary Larson, Far Side).

Biased? I get that a column is meant to be biased, because all opinions are born from a bias.  

What I question is, might your disinclination towards NASCAR lead you down the wrong path for this column?  What I mean is, in particular, your assessment on the amount of fans attending each race, and the amount of waste they leave.  I’ll round up and say that there are 200,000 spectators once media, staff etcetera are factored in.  That is a great number of people, especially to be in one place.  

But, by comparison, how many people fill NFL stadiums each week? At minimum there are 50,000 people in one stadium.  Multiply that by 16 and NASCAR can not compete.  

I did like that you were fair, and offered a rebuttal to your own argument.  That’s what good journalists are supposed to do.  

As a suggestion:

You don’t like NASCAR.  I assume the reason why you don’t like NASCAR is not just because of the environmental issues.  So, there is more to it than that.  Tell us about them.  The environmental issue can become just one of a few factors in your article on why you don’t like NASCAR.

But, drats, why does it matter what one individual likes or dislikes?  How about…”Why NASCAR Won’t Become a Major Sport” by  JWalte04.  ðŸ™‚  

Actually…… The argument for racing has always been that the constructors learn things about the cars through development that would use the same resources through other means.  In the meantime, the money generated by the events helps to offset the costs of this learning process.

Now I realize I’m being the devil’s advocate to even suggest these things, but in a debate, these are the arguments you might hear. Your environmental points make sense, but most sports generate so much unneccessary waste that to pick on NASCAR only is rather selective.  They seem like an obvious target because of the fuel consumption, but the comparisons might be closer than you’d expect if you had reliable figures at your disposal.

great point of view You need to check your research,if you did any.Look closer at nascars eco plan before you jump the gun.

Nascar is a sport The fact that you hate NASCAR is fully understood.
The fact that you try to use the Environment as another reason is, if evenly applied, probably more damning to Baseball and Football. I have heard mention by others about how many people have to go to the toilets like it is an environmental issue. Psst. I bet they would go to the bathroom somewhere if they weren’t at the race.
Not even sure how many baseball games are played and by the countless number of teams, but there is a lot of fuel used getting there and snarling traffic, a lot of lights and yes, even a lot of trips to the bathrooms.
Is it wasteful? Probably yes. But no more than Baseball, Hockey, Football, etc. As here are only 36 , well, 38 cup races including the 2 non-points events in comparison to thousands of Baseball games, it pales in comparison.
As for the drivers being athletes, the training regiments of both drivers and the pit crews is grueling. A driver will lose up to 10 ponds during a 500 mile race. As far as it being a sport, by comparison everything else is just a game.

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