October 21, 2002

Fill her up buddy and give me the good stuff. I have got a date with victory lane and, I need to go fast.

Have you ever thought about where the fuel used in the Winston Cup series comes from?

The fuel utilized in NASCAR is a subject that you just don’t hear much about. We were able to track down some particulars that perhaps will help you better understand this nectar that sends champions to the center table in New York at the Winston Cup banquet.

In the early days there was an business called “The Pure Oil Company.” We were able to trace “Pure” back to 1887. The company seemed to take off in 1917 when the Dawes brothers purchased it after they were actually asked to evaluate its worth for other possible investors.

When NASCAR came on the scene in 1948 Pure Oil went to the sanctioning body with an idea of promoting their brand in exchange for fuel to be used at races on the NASCAR circuit. The deal made with Bill France Sr turned “Pure Oil” into the official gasoline of NASCAR.

The 1960`s would find the Pure Oil company in financial trouble from previous price wars of the 1950`s with, having to purchase crude oil on the open market to keep refineries running. They searched for a merger that would bring with it the production of crude oil. In 1965 Pure Oil merged with Union Oil which was founded in 1890 by Lyman Stewart of California. Union Oil held an impressive position in the production and refining of crude oil thus the merger was a success.

The fuel brought to the tracks in the Winston Cup series is produced in Beaumont Texas. That refinery was originally owned by Pure and was maintained in the merger with Union Oil.

Racing fuel produced by Union 76 comes in a variety of octane’s ranging from 100 Octane used in high performance street cars up to118 Octane used in supercharged and turbo charged racing engines. In the beginning of NASCAR the fuel was 108 Octane. It was in the late eighty’s that the sport went to a 110 octane fuel. This blend is of a leaded variety and, offers a very consistent power source for the 770 HP engines of today.

All the racing fuels produced by Union 76 are color coded. The 110 Octane used by Winston Cup teams is red in color. The red color provides NASCAR with a basis of testing. If you add something to the fuel it will dilute the color and that would be the first tip off to perhaps an infraction of the rules. Each day during a weekend of racing the fuel is tested. Union 76 takes a sample of fuel from their holdings and NASCAR in turn pulls a sample from the teams in a random fashion. The two samples must match.

There is no charge to the teams for the fuel used at the track. The teams do keep track of the amount of fuel that they use. The promotion of the fuel by means of displayed Union 76 logos on all cars is a trade off for this monumental undertaking by the California based fuel giant.

The fuel shows up to the track in fuel tankers and is sometimes pumped into under ground storage tanks. With environmental concerns of the past few years on the rise some tracks don’t use the under ground tanks and choose to keep the fuel on the tanker. The fuel is pumped out of the underground tanks after an event and removed from the site. You can start to see that the fuel is highly controlled with a system of checks and balances.

If you wanted to purchase this fuel for your car the national average at the time of this article is $ 4.50 per gallon. This is certainly not a cheap proposition of which Union 76 undertakes on a weekly basis. The fuel is just the start of what Union 76 provides during the weekend. Noted as present the day we did this article were at least four fuel attendants on duty pumping fuel for the race teams. These workers dressed to the nines in protective fire gear work a steady pace providing service for the event.

Union 76 was recently acquired by Phillips Petroleum but nothing is expected to change in the way the racing fuel is provided to the Winston Cup series. There is a real history here that dates back to the origin of the sport and was forged by the founding fathers of NASCAR. Perhaps we take for granted all the hard work that goes into this effort by Union 76.

Our hats go off to all the fuel workers at the track for their exhaustive efforts to bring a very consistent product to the Winston Cup series on a weekly basis. We also hope that we were able to shed light on this issue of fuel that very rarely gets explained.

So the next time you see that Jeremy Mayfield commercial with the hot babe that wears the 93 octane, remind yourself that his gal wears the cheap knock off version because the real stuff is 110 Octane.

You can contact Joe at: Insider Racing News