Auto racing: NASCAR feels the pinch at the pump

CONCORD, N.C. - As gas prices soar across the country, the thought of paying $6.25 a gallon would make any consumer cringe.
    Yet that's what it costs in NASCAR, where race teams use a special Sunoco 260 GTX unleaded fuel to fill their cars. Although the gas is free - part of Sunoco's agreement as NASCAR's official fuel supplier - it doesn't mean car owners and drivers aren't feeling the pain at the pump.
    ''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 SUVs.
    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.
    Of course, it's all budgeted for long before the season even starts. And teams aren't affected by the oft-changing fluctuations in fuel costs under the Sunoco deal.
    Even so, there are critics who complain that NASCAR races are dipping into the national supply. But NASCAR officials claim the amount of fuel being used - less than 175,000 gallons per year on the Sprint Cup Series - doesn't come close to the 366 million gallons that Americans average in daily usage.
    So NASCAR has no current plans to shorten races, as it did in the early 1970s when OPEC hoarded oil to increase prices, causing long lines at the pumps.