Imagine what it would be like to attend a National Basketball Association game and the basketball still had laces on it. Or, think about going to a National Football League game and the players still wore leather helmets and rather than kicking field goals, the players used the old drop-kick.
Car owner Robert Yates believes...
Car owner Robert Yates believes fuel-injected engines would be less costly for race teams.
In today's modern age of sports that sounds far-fetched; but just take a look under the hood of a NASCAR Winston Cup and Busch Series stock car.
Sitting on top of the engine is an object that can't be found on today's modern passenger car engines: a carburetor.
Carburetors haven't been used on passenger cars in 30 years. Today's cars use a fuel-injection system that allows the engine to produce more horsepower with less fuel. In turn, less gasoline is dumped through the engine and expelled out the exhaust system, creating a cleaner burn with less pollution.
"If I had to close down my engine shop and lay off all of my guys, they wouldn't be able to get a job at a car dealership because they've been working on antique engines."- team owner Robert Yates
While much of today's NASCAR looks high-tech, the engine is essentially the same 1955 short-block V-8 that is fast approaching its 50th birthday. Nearly every other major form of racing uses fuel-injection engines. Could NASCAR be next?
A Case For Change
Team owner and master engine builder Robert Yates would like NASCAR to be the next sanctioning body to put the carburetor in a museum, along with manual chokes, running boards, and jumper seats.
"If I had to close down my engine shop and lay off all of my guys, they wouldn't be able to get a job at a car dealership because they've been working on antique engines," says Yates, who owns the cars driven by Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler. "I'm not saying NASCAR needs to do it next year or the year after, but it's time we take an open mind to this situation for a lot of reasons."
While some believe NASCAR has resisted fuel-injected engines because it would be harder to control and police, others argue that the technology may be even easier to keep speeds in check.