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Fuel mileage a mathematical Winston Cup necessity

Posted: Monday April 12, 1999 05:34 PM

NASCAR Know-How CLICK THE IMAGE TO LAUNCH CLIP Rusty Wallace explains how the crew chief determines how much fuel goes into the car. (393K .mov)

I've lost races and I've won races -- all because of fuel mileage. And as soon as you get to victory lane, the first thing people want to know is, 'How did you know you could make it all the way?' Well to be honest, I didn't, but my crew did, and here's how.

First off, NASCAR rules do not allow on-board computer systems in the race cars, so to determine fuel mileage, we have to go back to basics. One of the first things the guys do on Sunday morning is weigh the gas cans when they are empty. Once they know that weight, they can then calculate the exact amount of fuel that is in the can every time they fill it up.

Then later on in the race, when we come in for a pit stop, we'll put most of the 22 gallons the cans hold into the car.

After the stop, we weigh the cans again. The difference in weight is the amount of fuel that we used to run that portion of the race. My crew chief, Robin Pemberton, then takes the amount of miles we drove in that portion of the race and divides that by the amount of fuel we used and has his fuel mileage.

Feel like you need a degree in math? That's how I feel sometimes too. But here's a general rule to follow that makes it simple: We can go about 100 miles on a tank of fuel. Fuel mileage gambles can be a tough call for a crew chief, but if you're brave enough it can be your best friend too.