Jun2 |
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High Gas Prices? Blame NASCAR.
There’s an excellent letter to the editor in the current edition of the Northeast Times, about high gas prices. The letter blames several people and/or groups for the high price of gas, but most notable are these two:
And what about NASCAR drivers who drive to the stores? Those greedy shop owners, not selling every product imaginable, and instead only having specialty shops that sell “ice cream” or “compact discs” or whatever! I do like the idea of lowering gas prices by eliminating NASCAR and making every store a Wal-Mart. Don’t they have the same clientele? Update: Hey, look, NASCAR actually answered this complaint back in 2004 on its official website. Er, well, not really, it just mentioned other ways we Americans waste gas. 5/29 Letters [Northeast Times] |
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What about people who fly to Sweden to buy penis enlargers?
All of the NASCAR fans need to be taken to reeducation camps.
To be re-educated you would have to be educated in the first place. Most NASCAR fans, sadly, are not.
Farmers should worked their fields with hoes.
As a NASCAR fan with 2 master’s degrees who avoids Walmart to support small shops that I can walk to, I’d like to mention that NASCAR is looking in to switching to alternative fuels…
This was *almost* a typical NE Times letter. But instead of blaming “race” she blamed “a race.”
Actually, the NASCAR race cars do not use the same gas as everyone else. The blend they use would cost over $6/gallon if they paid for it. They dont pay for it, Sunocco gives it to them as a trade off for being the official fuel of NASCAR.
So Sunoco GIVES gas to rednecks turning left and I have to pay for it? Oh yeah, that’s much better. Thanks for the clarification there.
I am dumber for reading this..The Nascar bloging over gas…this is five minutes i’ll never get back!
How, exactly, are you paying for it?
Well John, Lynn goes to the pump, then swipes a card or gives cash to the attendant. I’m pretty sure that is how it works.
How come nobody makes snide comments about horses only turning left for the Triple Crown?
You’re absolutely right.
For some reason I parsed that as her paying for the gas going to the rednecks.
Hm.
I am sure the intent of the letter was for someone to flaunt a supposedly superior knowledge and station in life. If only you could look outside yourself far enough to see how miserably you have failed. Philadelphia should be embarassed.
As a highly “uneducated” nASCAR and motor sports blogger ler me take a stab at this.
As someone pointed out NASCAR does not, and hasn’t used anything close to the gas you use in your daily commute to Starbucks in about thirty years.
And no, it doesn’t come out of any of your precious pockets.
Secondly, NASCAR uses approximately 200,000 gallons of gas per year. The U.S. public uses well OVER 300 million gallons PER DAY. In case your delusional blindness prevents you from noticing NASCAR gas consumption is the proverbial drop in the bucket compared to the U.S. public as a whole.
NASCAR events total 38 events per year at the Cup level and average just under 40 million fans that attend the events.
That is opposed to over 80 million that attend MLB gamse per year and the NFL reports about 26 thousand attend football games per year.
May I suggest (tongue firmly placed in cheek) that all NFL and MLB games be cancelled as a better option to save fuel that could be used for more “important things” such as keeping botox injection appointments, trips to the tanning parlor and taking the Saab on day trips to The Hamptons?
Might I further suggest save your self-rightous, misguided indignation over NASCAR and point your finger at the IndyCar racing series.
After all they have switched to the oh so ecco-friendly E85 ethanol as their fuel of choice.
You know E85, the fuel that is contributing to the price of everything corn related to sky-rocket and has led to food shortages around the world because a food stuff is being diverted to use as a fuel source.
But that makes far too much sense to the disingenous and misguided who want to point at what they claim are “uneducated” red-necked NASCAR fans and supporters.
At least us dumb-assed NASCAR supporters are smart enough not to turn our dinner side dishs into gas for our pick-me-up trucks!
Does the gas that NASCAR gets for free come from the same oil used to produce the gas I put in my car? Does Sunoco pass any of the cost of the gas given to NASCAR on to other consumers?
If the answer to either of the above questions is “yes”, then yeah, I’m paying for it. So is everyone else.
And though I’ve never referenced the fact that racehorses (in this country, anyway) only turn left, I have made some snide comments regarding horseracing on this blog. I’m not a fan of either that or NASCAR.
Lynn - “Does the gas that NASCAR gets for free come from the same oil used to produce the gas I put in my car? Does Sunoco pass any of the cost of the gas given to NASCAR on to other consumers?
Yes and maybe yes.
But do you honestly think the small, nearly miniscule amount NASCAR uses YEARLY as compared to what the American driver uses in a DAILY (388.6 million gallons/day) basis is a reason to whimper about any costs passed on to you or others? The cost even if it is passed on to you is such a small fraction of a penny as to be laughable.
If you do it only goes to show your looking for the slightest reason to slam NASCAR and has nothing to do with reason, logic or common sense.
As I previously noted, complain about the lunatic politicians that have subsidized the production of ethanol with the resulting price increases on thousands of products you buy EVERYDAY to feed you and your family.
You might have a valid complaint, but that will never happen will it Lynn, because those “evil” auto racers make easy targets as they “waste” gas going in circles.
Lynn - “Does the gas that NASCAR gets for free come from the same oil used to produce the gas I put in my car? Does Sunoco pass any of the cost of the gas given to NASCAR on to other consumers?
Yes and maybe yes.
But do you honestly think the small, nearly miniscule amount NASCAR uses YEARLY as compared to what the American driver uses in a DAILY (388.6 million gallons/day) basis is a reason to whimper about any costs passed on to you or others? The cost even if it is passed on to you is such a small fraction of a penny as to be laughable.
If you do it only goes to show your looking for the slightest reason to slam NASCAR and has nothing to do with reason, logic or common sense.
As I previously noted, complain about the lunatic politicians that have subsidized the production of ethanol with the resulting price increases on thousands of products you buy EVERYDAY to feed you and your family.
You might have a valid complaint, but that will never happen will it Lynn, because those “evil” auto racers make easy targets as they “waste” gas going in circles.
I just love the irony here. The writer of this blog and the author of the letter included demonstrate a remarkable level of ignorance, a complete lack of common sense, all while outing themselves as bigots.
Dmac, looks like you just found your new Ron Paul
Not only did they out themselves as bigots, they have helped slapped the label on all Philadelphians, and readers of the Northeast Times. Don’t generalized assumptions suck? Meanwhile, we at the NASCAR websites are laughing our collective butts off at “y’all’s” ignorance.
One thing that most of you have failed to mention is that NASCAR is a business….And is in the business of making money….As is Sonoco. The money that Sonoco spends to pay for NASCAR fuel is certainly passed on to the consumer, but it is a marketing campaign which draws revenue for this company. It is the same with any other business….Think about it…Do you pay more for Sonoco gas than another brand? Sonoco charges the same as any other gas station where I live!
If you are going to hate on someone for the gas prices….Hate on the ***holes that are overcharging us for the oil in the first place!
One thing that most of you have failed to mention is that NASCAR is a business….And is in the business of making money….As is Sonoco. The money that Sonoco spends to pay for NASCAR fuel is certainly passed on to the consumer, but it is a marketing campaign which draws revenue for this company. It is the same with any other business….Think about it…Do you pay more for Sonoco gas than another brand? Sonoco charges the same as any other gas station where I live!
If you are going to hate on someone for the gas prices….Hate on the ***holes that are overcharging us for the oil in the first place!
People on NASCAR websites are laughing at us.
The horror.
I guess we’d best kill ourselves from the shame of it.
Dark Horse John (DHJ) - “I guess we’d best kill ourselves from the shame of it.”
No they aren’t. More like, so what else is new. These type of anti-NASCAR screeds that are for the most part factless and laced with the bigoted invective “Redneck” are usually seen about the some time as the Daytona 500 in late Feb.
Unfortunately with the current world market for petroleum what it is they have started appearing much later than normal and are punched out by people that are clueless about NASCAR and motor racing in general.
And sadly, in the vast majority of cases those that do publish their off-target rants have little interest in learning the truth, much less looking for it prior to hitting the “publish button.”
As a side note, the “rednecks” some in this thread have referred to hardly fit the demographics of the current NASCAR fan base that shows 30% of the fans earn $70,000 or more per year and 60% of them live in the Mid-west, West or Northeast,hardly trailer-trash Redneck territory.
If you feel any shame DHJ it should be in perpetuating some of the myths that surround NASCAR and other forms of auto racing.
That’s where you and the author of this blogs shame lays.
Do you also want to eliminate the average economic boost of $100,000,000 (that’s 100 million for those of you who think it’s a typo) the average Cup race brings to the host city?
Uh, I never said anything about NASCAR. Or rednecks. I don’t give a flying fuck about auto racing or who watches it. That’s why I never said anything about either.
Guess maybe you should have learned the truth before hitting the publish button, huh?
By math, Major League Baseball has 2,592 games per season. Assume the average game attracts 28,000 fans. Assume fans drive an average of 10 miles to see a game, or .5 gallons of gas.
This adds up to around 360,000,000, or 360 million, gallons of gas used on baseball.
Now, say there are 36 NASCAR races, each drawing 100,000 fans, driving an average of 60 miles (or 3 gallons). These fans use 10,800,000 gallons of gas per year. Add in the 200,000 gallons that the drivers themselves use and you have a total of 11,000,000, or 11 million gallons use by NASCAR.
To summarize.
Baseball- 360 million gallon / year
NASCAR- 11 million gallons / year
But who cares about logic, right?
Dark Horse, you originally didn’t say anything negative towards rednecks or NASCAR fans (two different entities, btw)But you ‘posted’ a comment that lumped yourself into a group of people being discussed that had. Why would you do that if you didn’t feel that it was aimed at you?
Dark Horse, you originally didn’t say anything negative towards rednecks or NASCAR fans (two different entities, btw)But you ‘posted’ a comment that lumped yourself into a group of people being discussed that had. Why would you do that if you didn’t feel that it was aimed at you?
“tj” - precisely! But don’t expect DHJ to see the point.
BTW, DHJ “For some reason I parsed that as her paying for the gas going to the rednecks. Hm. Posted by: Dark Horse John at June 3, 2008 12:55 PM
That sure looks like a ref to rednecks to me.
DHJ - “Uh, I never said anything about NASCAR. Or rednecks. I don’t give a flying fuck about auto racing or who watches it. That’s why I never said anything about either. Guess maybe you should have learned the truth before hitting the publish button, huh?
If you don’t care about either subject why comment at all? And if you felt so compelled to do so why the snarky, smart-assed remark about any “horror” you may or may not have felt?
Sorry guy, I don’t buy it for a hot second, you’re in complete lock-step with both the authors stance on this subject and the nitwit she has quoted in the post.
Calm down and have a latte, or better yet, go piss away a few gallons of gas enroute to the nearest MLB game.
I hate NASCAR. The fans are all retarded rednecks who can’t spell and have sex with their siblings and parents.
I find it telling that the comments by the Nascar fans contain things like statistic, logic and math, while those of the non-fans are full of stereotypes and ignorant statements. Wait, which side was supposed to be just “ignorant rednecks”?
I couldn’t have said it better myself “trinaaron.”
And I have to say after 5 years of blogging and just as many running across so many anti-NASCAR types what you see here is all too typical.
They have nothing to support their argument except childish name calling and when that frails to gather the right response from who it was tossed at their quietly slink out of the thread never to be seen again.
“Jim” up there is an example, in fact he could be the poster child for what is called a Blog Roach.
Dark Horse: I like your objective comparison of the overall gasoline consumption between NASCAR and MLB games. But I checked your numbers and came up with a different total for the baseball games:
1: 2592 games x 28,000 people per game = 72,576,000 game attendees.
2: Assume they travel with at least 2 people per car: so 72,576,000 divided by 2 = 36,288,000 vehicle trips.
3: Each trip of 10 miles x 36,288,000 trips = 362,880,000 miles driven.
4: 362,880,000 miles driven divided by 20 MPG = 18,144,000 gallons of gas yearly, not 360 million gallons per year for going to MLB games yearly.
(I personally think your assumption of 10 miles per trip is low, but stayed with your numbers. I think it’s more like 20 miles round trip average per game which would double the bottom line to 36,288,000 gallons per year.)
That’s probably fairly close Susan, but I’d add this.
The NASCAR figures count gas used by all the transporters used to haul cars from track-to-track.
If you add all the fuel used by MLB teams to fly to all the away games it adds up to a larger number.
Regardless of the numbers to complain about fuel used by NASCAR is an anemic stance at best there are plenty of other optional uses for fuel that use as much or more than NASCAR.
Auto racing is selected by the intellectually dishonest for one reason and one reason only, it’s use of gas. Period.
Oh… and it gives the haters and bigots and excuse to pull their “redneck card”.
Next thing you know “they” will forbid us to drive to church because millions of us do and that’s using gasoline.