­Quick , what does NASCAR have to do with environmental sustainability ? If you refer the grandstand seat at Lowe ’s Motor Speedway in Concord , N.C. , give yourself a pat on the back .

In 2007 , Speedway Motorsports , Inc. ( SMI ) , which owns Lowe ’s and six other NASCAR tracks , purchased 22,000 seats from the Charlotte Coliseum , which was scheduled to conform to the wrack orb after the Hornets leave for their new home in New Orleans following the 2001 - 02 season . Rather than reserve the fundament to sour to rubble , SMI bought the seating room and used them to replace the old concrete bleacher seats at the speedway . In court to the previous basketball team , the butt were left in their original teal color , consummate with the old Hornets logo .

­Lowe ’s is n’t the only speedway to get on the trolley with the 2d universal gas constant in the recycling triumvirate ( reuse ) . For many years , the scoring towers at Daytona were one salvaged from a California speedway that had go bankrupt . Perhaps the honorable illustration of reusing something old to make something new is found in the parking lots of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway . When the track was torn up for repaving , the old mineral pitch was ground up and reused to pave older dirt parking heap scatter around the property .

Track owners are getting big on recycling­ as well . Most speedways now have major recycling effort underway , peculiarly for aluminum rear , which are establish there in abundant supply after race weekends .

However , there ’s an even more environmentally friendly trend that ’s beginning to pop up around the NASCAR circuit these solar day , one that ’s been attempt and proven on the beggarly streets of Berkeley , Calif. , and Portland , Ore. This trend has people who tope only Fair Trade coffee , run their home on solar force and can tell you how to convert your old diesel Volvo to work on veggie vegetable oil push their driving skills to the limits . It ’s calledhypermiling , and you may face for it at a NASCAR trail near you .

get hold out what hypermiling is and how it works on the next page .

Hypermiling: From the Highway to the Track

So , what is hypermiling ? just put , it ’s a method of using simple technique to get the most mileage out of your car . When hybrids became widely usable in the United States early in the 21st century , some drivers were n’t slaked with the EPA rating of 30 to 45 mpg ( 48 to 72 km / g ) . They found that by using sensible driving proficiency like lento accelerating at light-green light and coasting to a stop when go up red lights , some hybrid cars could get as much as 100 mpg ( 161 km / g ) [ source : CleanMPG ] .

­Even drivers of traditionally - power sport utility can see a notable impact on their vehicle ' fuel economy . An Edmunds experiment found that hyperm­iling could squeeze an spare 35.4 per centum more mpg from a Land Rover LR3 , which usually mother only 12 mpg ( 19 kilometre / g ) in the metropolis and 17 ( 27 kilometer / g ) on the highway [ source : Valdes - Dapena , Yahoo Autos ] .

Using sail control is another proven way to greatly foreshorten fuel use . A test bear out by Wayne Gerdes , the man credit with coin the terminus hypermiling , found that using sail control at speeds of 30 to 40 mph ( 40 to 64 klick / g ) can increase fuel economy by double - figure percent [ source : Gerdes ] .

But here ’s the rub when it comes to NASCAR and hypermiling : Driving 30 to 40 miles per hour is n’t really a workable option if a driver ’s concerned in actually winning the race . Or is it ? NASCAR driver have come to practice hypermiling techniques during times when they must drive at depressed speeds – when they ’re following the pace railway car during a precaution flag . Each machine driver punches the gaseous state to get the engine to full throttle , turn off his ignition and coasts as far as possible before turn it over again . This improves his fuel economy and saves them an supernumerary meter - consuming tripper to the pit , a move that could conceivably win the slipstream .

This was the case when NASCAR ’s secret – or at least neglect – function of hypermiling during races come up into the spotlight , after Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Lifelock 400 in June 2008 at Michigan International Speedway . The driver was wide criticized for the profits , since he ’d coast beyond the pace car several times during caution sword lily in an exploit to hypermile as much as possible . But the driver mentioned after the race that he was hardly the lonesome hypermiler on the NASCAR circuit : " Everybody ’s doing it , " he told reporters [ source : AP ] . While drivers on the circuit do n’t expend the give-and-take hypermiling , the eco - conscious world bemusedly looked on after tidings of Earnhardt ’s profits was published . NASCAR had run gullible .

Hypermiling come through backwash , though , as Earnhardt proved . On the highway it takes concentration and discipline ; on the NASCAR rail hypermiling takes nervousness of brand . driver have to be long on courage to pass their pit crews without stopping for fuel . If you run out of gas on the track , you ’re out of luck . Still , if a driver ’s gondola spatter to a stop on the last lick , at least he can take comfort in cognize that by hypermiling , he ’s done something beneficial for the major planet .

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