Who says racing has nothing to do with fuel economy? Honestly, I was rather shocked to hear about the prominence of hypermiling techniques in racing, especially NASCAR. Perhaps the revolution is hitting home with more people than the news would lead us to believe. Here’s the word direct from Earnhardt and ESPN:
Knowing the race was going to be extended beyond its scheduled 200 laps, Eury told Earnhardt to shut the engine off and coast whenever he could under the caution flag in a desperate effort to save more gas.
Junior did just that, coasting fast enough at times that he passed the pace car — until NASCAR warned Eury to have Earnhardt cut it out.
“I didn’t know how much they were going to worry about it,” Earnhardt said. “All the cars out there are gassing it, shutting ‘em off, coasting about a half straightaway, cranking ‘em back up, gas it, coast. Everybody’s doing it.
For those of you who don’t know already, this technique is oftentimes called “Pulse & Glide,” and is widely used by ecodrivers looking to get better gas mileage. P&G works by making your engine work only when it’s most efficient, and shutting it off at other times.
P&G, as the name suggests, has two main components. The pulse is an acceleration phase with lots of throttle, and the glide is a coast in neutral or with the engine off. People using P&G for fuel economy will often pick a median speed and pulse up to 10 MPH above that and then glide down to 10 MPH below, so that they can maintain an average speed around where the would be driving anyway.
It works because your engine is most efficient in high load operation, and then uses no fuel if you’re coasting with the engine off, as Earnhardt did. Rather than being in a constant low load, inefficient state, the combination of burning more during acceleration and then none during coast averages out to savings. While it may seem counter intuitive, Earnhardt’s victory clearly shows that it’s a viable technique.
Now, that said, I do not recommend using P&G in traffic where other drivers might not know what you’re doing or it might be dangerous. It’s best at low speeds (where aerodynamics is not so much of a factor) and when you have an open road that you know well. For a better description of P&G, see this MetroMPG.com article. For more fuel efficient driving techniques check out the 100+ EcoDriving Tips list.
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27 responses so far ↓
1 John John Johnman // Jun 17, 2008 at 6:12 pm
If you are going to cash off of Dale Jr’s popularity by plugging his name in his article, maybe you should have the decency to include a picture of the car he drives.
2 Benjamin Jones // Jun 17, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Unless you own an image you would let us use, it would be illegal to just go and find one and throw it up.
So perhaps your question of “decency” should be about stealing intellectual property by using pictures of his car that we don’t own, :p
3 Digital // Jun 18, 2008 at 1:09 pm
touche Benjamin Jones, touche.
4 anon // Jun 18, 2008 at 1:21 pm
The fact that you mention to only try on roads you know well with low traffic is scary. I understand trying to save some money and the ‘world’, but geez… worry about OTHER peoples safety first. Go hug a tree or something you hippie.
5 Sam G // Jun 18, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Wait, Benjamin Jones, do you own the international property to the photo that you put up there? Furthermore I am sure a young and budding photographer would love to have their picture featured here. I think it is a little ridiculous to have a picture of nascar racer when talking about another.
6 Sean // Jun 18, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Here, I can help.
Go here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/daleearnhardtjr/
Find one that’s saved under creative commons license. Or a free license. (You’ll see the little CC logo in the information) and be sure to leave a credit/link for the photographer.
7 Sean // Jun 18, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Oh, I almost forgot my main comment:
Racecar drivers have been using “hypermile” techniques for decades to win races. It might be interesting to pick the brains of some of the better ones at winning fuel mileage races to get ideas for the road.
8 regeya // Jun 18, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Yeah, lots of luck with that. The picture of the Petty car may or may not be a violation of NASCAR rules, STP’s copyright, blah blah blah and it’s getting to where you can just barely mention NASCAR without cutting a check. So…my guess is that a generic track photo is all that will be allowed in the future.
9 uh, yeah.. // Jun 18, 2008 at 2:09 pm
so what, instead you put up a picture you don’t own of someone else’s car?
10 Evan // Jun 18, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Doing an advanced search on Flickr requesting results with a specific Creative Commons License allowing you to use the image is easy enough and such images are rather abundant.
See: Flickr.com > Search > Advanced Search > Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content
I then restricted the results to any date taken after February 2008 as to get Juniors new car/sponsor/number.
11 james // Jun 18, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I’ve done this down long grades when i’m running very low, just remember to keep the key in the ON position else deal with steering wheel locking on you. It should also be said that in most cases you lose power everywhere, including steering and brakes.
12 Benjamin Jones // Jun 18, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Anon: The advise isn’t meant to scare you, it’s meant to keep you from being inconvenient to others. Just like driving 35 MPH on the highway isn’t good, P&G in traffic isn’t good.
To everyone commenting on the image: I did use the flickr CC search, but wasn’t looking for the right thing, I was kinda sleepy when I put the picture up, no one is perfect, :p
Changing it now.
13 anon // Jun 18, 2008 at 2:38 pm
power steering and braking may not work with the engine off… best of luck
14 tashare // Jun 18, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Too all you you saying why would you put a picture of another driver up when you are talking about Dale Jr. shows how very little all of you know about NASCAR. That is Dale Jr.’s car. It is NOT his current car. He drove the number 8 car last year.
15 Dale // Jun 18, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Still the wrong car. Budweiser was last year.
http://www.dalejr.com/#myride
16 lardvark // Jun 18, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Umm… Dale’s number is 88 now, not 8. He quit driving for DEI at the end of last year. He now drives for Hendrick Motorsports and is sponsored by Amp and the National Guard.
17 Joshua // Jun 18, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Still not his car.
18 Jack // Jun 18, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I have no idea how this coasting is supposed to work.
In a car the brake cylinders are powered by the engine. If you shut the engine off you have the pressure in the system (one or two presses on the brake) after this the brakes on the car will not work.
19 Jack // Jun 18, 2008 at 4:31 pm
And I completely forgot to add, what about the steering? Switch the engine off and you lose power steering.
In a car built with power steering, turning it off means you have to apply 5x the force on the wheel to change direction.
Imagine having to dodge something on the road quickly, not only do your brakes not work, but neither can you steer (at all) because of the weight of the unassisted housing.
In addition to all this with the engine off the steering lock will activate once you turn the wheel beyond a certain angle left or right. So if by some chance you avoided what was on the road your wheel has now locked and you are going off the road.
It amazes me that no one who talks about this pulse & glide knows about these base functionalities in automobiles.
20 Timothy342 // Jun 18, 2008 at 4:35 pm
The ABS system or the airbags will not work either by the way. So once you do go off the road as described above the situation only gets worse.
21 hmmmm // Jun 19, 2008 at 7:14 am
lol..it’s still wrong. its cool man, i know you are trying and are clearly not a nascar fan but maybe just a little research into the CURRENT Dale Jr info would reveal you are looking for 88 not 8. Hope that helps.
22 Benjamin Jones // Jun 19, 2008 at 9:59 pm
To those concerned about P&G in regards to steering and power assist brakes, you’ve made a good point. I forgot to mention it because #1 my personal car doesn’t have power steering so I never notice the difference and #2 I spend so much time mentioning it that in this VERY BRIEF overview, I didn’t think of it.
People doing P&G are not stupid, we know how our cars work, and we don’t advise others to do it before making sure they know also. This post was not an advertisement for P&G, but was just meant to explain how it was employed in racing to to describe what it was for those who didn’t know.
So, Jack, please don’t overreact, and try to refrain from words like “functionality,” which can be defined as “the quality of being of or related to a function.” Function is a much nicer word for it.
23 Pro_Rally // Jun 20, 2008 at 5:10 am
Who cares about the darn picture of the car!
Did anyone, who complained of the image, actually GET the story?
I say, put a pic of an F1 race in Monaco or the World Rally Championship in Australia.
It’s the message, people — not the image.
24 Kakman // Jun 20, 2008 at 8:10 am
I am curious….. I was under the impression that starting an engine takes about as much gas as allowing it to idle for about three minutes. I can only imagine that in average conditions, P & G would be applying power every minute or less, except on long downhill runs. It would also seem that a manual transmission would be the only way to make this work well.
25 Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s hypermiling tricks help win NASCAR race » Hybrid News // Jun 23, 2008 at 10:48 am
[...] ESPN via EcoModder, h/t to [...]
26 Pulse & Glide in NASCAR (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) » Hybrid News // Jun 24, 2008 at 2:07 am
[...] Source: Dale Earnhardt Jr Hypermiles to Victory in NASCAR Racing by Benjamin Jones (June 17, 2008) -> http://www.ecomodder.com/blog/2008/0…nascar-racing/ [...]
27 peter // Jun 30, 2008 at 9:21 am
Subject: using an Earnhardt Jr. pic.
Since this is a news story, using a pic of Dale Earnhardt Jr pic (or his car) falls under the Fair Use.
Fair use covers educational and news reporting purpose.
My impression is Ecomodder is a news/education/news aggragator site. Not some entity that would ‘jack’ earnhardt’s pic and knock out 1,000s of coffee mugs to be sold at $20.00.
P.S. I did ‘get’ what the blog is about: less fuel, more work (distance).
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