Sens. John Thune, R-SD and Evan Bayh, D-IN cosigned a letter to NASCAR CEO Brian France asking the leader of the stock car sanctioning body to follow the Indy Racing League’s example and begin fueling racecars with the renewable fuel produced in the United States.

”We believe that respected American traditions, such as NASCAR and the Indy Racing League, have a responsibility to lead by example and help cut our ties to foreign sources of oil and embrace alternative renewable resources that are produced here at home,” the letter said.

The letter comes on the eve of American motorsports biggest weekend. The Indianapolis 500, the IRL’s biggest race, and the Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR’s longest race, are both on Sunday.

NASCAR was exempt from being required to use unleaded fuel in the 1970 Clean Air Act, and only began using unleaded fuel in its Nextel Cup Series this year, after a year of on track testing in its lower-level Busch and Craftsman Truck Series.

The IRL switched to 100 percent ethanol in 2007 after using a methanol/ethanol blend in 2006.

NASCAR’s roots can be traced back to ethanol. The sport’s early stars were North Carolina moonshiners who raced their supped up street cars against each other when they weren’t busy transporting illegal liquor and avoiding the police. 

A switch to ethanol is unlikely in the immediate future; a new fuel would take a considerable amount of time to develop and phase into the sport. The switch to unleaded fuel only came after more than a decade of testing.

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