Nascar racing engines have been fueled by carburetors since the sanctioning body’s first race on Daytona Beach in 1948, but for the 2012 season, carburetors will be abandoned in Sprint Cup, Nascar’s premier race series, in favor of electronic fuel injection. The sanctioning body announced the new specification in February and completed its first on-track tests of fuel-injection systems this month at Kentucky Speedway.  Carburetors were relegated long ago to the automotive scrap heap by vehicle manufacturers, who switched to fuel injection in the 1980s, but Nascar prides itself on its competitive balance among racecars and does not move quickly to adapt new technology. The sanctioning body, however, does try to connect to the real world of passenger cars, and fuel injection adds daily-driver relevance.  Nascar has gone to great lengths to ensure a level racing field with template checks of body dimensions, engine rules that render the various manufacturer’s V-8s nearly identical and specifications for many parts and systems. Does the move to fuel injection further flatten the playing field, making the sport still more a game contested among drivers rather than a race among machines?  Doug Yates, the chief executive of Roush Yates Engines and the son of Robert Yates, the Nascar engine builder and team owner, doesn’t think so. “The switch to fuel injection gives the teams a little more freedom to innovate,” he said in a telephone interview. “Any rule change gives teams a chance to gain an advantage. I’m definitely in favor.”  Nascar fuel injection, as currently specified, will use a carburetorlike throttle body mounted on an intake manifold. But fuel will be delivered by means of injectors mounted in the intake ports. Nascar will require all teams to use a tamper-proof Electronic Control Unit to regulate fuel mixture. The unit will be manufactured by McLaren Electronic Systems, using 32-bit Freescale processors, which are found in numerous passenger-car applications. The software that controls engine functions will be identical for all teams, and Nascar will have electronic test equipment available at race sites to make sure that every car is running a legal control unit.  “We’ll be able to collect data from the racetrack that we never had before, said Mr. Yates. “We’ll be able to study how the engine is responding throughout the race and make adjustments based on science. Today, the crew chief and driver get together and try to figure out what’s happening on the track. Now, we’ll know.”  The switch to fuel injection also is intended to improve Nascar’s environmental friendliness. “This is a positive step that will provide greater fuel efficiency and a greener footprint while maintaining the same great competition we have seen on the racetrack,” said Robin Pemberton, Nascar’s vice president of competition, in a statement in February.  “My dad has been pushing for cleaner racecars for years,” Mr. Yates said. “He’s very pleased.”  In the test at Kentucky Speedway, five cars fitted with fuel-injection systems — two Chevrolets, a Dodge, a Ford and a Toyota — ran practice laps with the rest of the Nascar field. Speeds ranged from 170 m.p.h. to 174 m.p.h., placing most cars in the middle of the pack.  It’s an exciting time for Nascar fans and potentially a welcome change, but for old-time, shade-tree mechanics who miss the days when a factory team could show up at Daytona and blow everyone away with some outrageous technology, doubts may linger.  While fuel injection is a step forward, the potential for still more enforced equality is there. If the new specifications allow engineers and mechanics to gain a competitive advantage, will Nascar tighten the rules, perhaps mandating a specific engine calibration for every car and making Nascar competition even more a test of driver skill and less of an automobile race?  The bruised-knuckle side of the sport certainly will be watching keenly in 2012 for answers.
The sanctioning body recently tested new fuel-injected engines, which it mandated for the 2012 Sprint Cup season and beyond.