Hey Kasey Kahne, Can I Get a Lift to Work?

In the interest of full disclosure, let me tell you that NASCAR does nothing for me.

I've never been to a live race, nor do I have the desire.

I've watched parts of races on TV enough times to know that the coverage seems quite good.

I don't understand the appeal of the sport, but I do understand the appeal of the brand-loyalty that comes with the sport.

I open with this so you recognize that, while I've been known to take shots at the NASCAR Nation with the intent of getting some laughs (which usually involves a Days of Thunder reference), I really don't care either way about the sport, and I wish its fans great joy in participating in whatever way they want to participate.

I am curious, though.

I ride the bus to work now; not in an effort to spare the environment my car's exhaust, but in an effort to spare my wallet further exhaustion. And as I rode the bus this morning, I wondered,

"What kind of MPG do the NASCAR cars get?"

The answer? According to a variety of internet sources, about five miles per gallon. You read that right. Five. As in half of ten.

At that rate, a 40-car, 400-mile race taking place in…oh, let's say Dover…will consume approximately 3,200 gallons of gas.

In one day.

I would never be so pretentious as to suggest that any one sport discontinue its activities simply because of the frivolity of the nature of that sport.

Nor would I be so misguided as to suggest that one sport's frivolity is…well, more frivolous…than any other sport's.

Sport, by its very nature, is frivolous; fun, but frivolous. However, sport is also, at most levels, a business, and who am I to tell an organization how to conduct their business? Particularly a business as well-run as NASCAR?

What I will say, though, is that the gas used in one 400-mile NASCAR race is enough gas to get me, in my modest 25 MPG car, to-and-from work (round trip about 60 miles), accounting for days-off taken for holidays, vacation, and sick time…for almost six full years.

I'm not sayin'.

I'm just sayin'.