by Chris Moore

Created on: November 05, 2008

It can be tough being a concerned environmentalist and a NASCAR fan.Does it make sense for me to cry for others to take the bus or walk more often rather than drive, then watch 43 people drive 500 miles around a racetrack for nothing more than our entertainment? Is it hypocritical to demand 30 miles per gallon for all commercial cars and then cheer stock cars that don't get a fraction of that?

I've been to every NASCAR Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway since 2004, and I clearly smell the hydrocarbons burning in the air for the four hours those drivers race. For a while, I clung to the false hope that maybe today's stock cars were advanced enough to get good fuel mileage. No such luck; they get six miles to the gallon tops.

I debated the issue if of whether or not auto racing is a waste of gasoline when our fuel supply is dwindling. But after all consideration, I believe auto racing is not the biggest cause of our fuel problems; in truth, it's near the bottom. Banning motorsports will do nothing to preserve our fuel supply.

True, NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series alone consumes about 216,000 gallons of gas a year, and some claim all its series use 2 million gallons annually. That's a lot of petrol being burned up for a sport, and it doesn't even include the IndyCar or Formula One series (although the IndyCar Series has moved to ethanol fuel).

But in reality, that's just a splash in the pan as far as wasted fuel.

Let's say at least a third of the US population drives a car, and on average they each drive one mile a day that they may not have to. Given how many of our cities have built sprawled communities and spurned public transit, this isn't far-fetched - it's as simple as driving to the McDonald's five blocks away and back. Let's also assume cars in this country average 20 miles to the gallon (It may be less with all the SUVs out there).

If this is true, the American public is wasting 5 million gallons of gas every day. That's over 1.8 billion gallons in a year.

True, everything I just presented was only speculation and estimates. But even if my figures aren't correct, they must be somewhere in the ballpark.Simply put, we all unnecessarily consume more than twice the gas in a day than any racing organization uses in a year. The people who choose to drive that one mile trip to Blockbuster or the post office rather than walk are doing more damage to our fuel supply than Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart ever could.

Learn more about this author, Chris Moore.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.