Nye's Argumentative Essay: Should NASCAR Go Electric?

Should NASCAR Go Electric?

In the beginning of 2016, famous Scientist, Bill Nye posted a blog to Aeon describing his near-future reality of NASCAR to be a field of Tesla-inspired electric vehicle racecars gliding along quickly and quietly on the NASCAR tracks such as Talledega or Daytona, drivers amusing the crowds so much with their ecofriendly cars that they inspire all of the fans to go out and buy their very own.

Bill Nye’s main argument is climate change “we have to stop, completely stop, burning fossil fuels. The obvious, straightforward, We’re-already-just-about-there answer is to convert our entire ground-transportation fleet – trains, trucks, buses and cars – to electric motors with batteries to store energy the way that gasoline

Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, the author of The Physics of NASCAR affirmed that “The primary reason why NASCAR can’t change over to electric cars right away is safety. If you knew anything about NASCAR you would understand that developing a race car is a decade-long process”. NASCAR racecars are being compared to Formula E racecars which use a battery rather than a standard 90-degree pushrod V8s engine used in NASCAR. The problem with these constant comparisons is that neither the tracks, car bodies, regulations, or mileage are the same. Usually, NASCAR competes on an oval track that are between half a mile and 2.5 miles long for about 400 to 500 miles while Formula E races on a street circuits with a distance of 20 miles at most. Just like NASCAR, Formula E requires their drivers to have two cars. NASCAR drivers are only allowed to use their backup car if there are damages to the original vehicles during practice; while Formula E requires their racers to change cars half way through the race to reduce the chance of the battery overheating. There cannot be a sudden change from engine to battery in NASCAR since the car’s body is not designed at the moment to carry a battery. It will take major reconstruction and test runs for proof of safety for a NASCAR electric vehicle to even be considered. It’s taken NASCAR 69 years and 27 deaths to make their current vehicle as flawless as it is. This is not just regular driving either, this is pushing a car to its limits and

Back in 2004, when NASCAR allowed Toyota cars to compete in the series many fans walked away from the tracks because Toyota was not like Ford or Chevrolet, Toyota is a Japanese brand-- not American like the rest. Whether fans are at the track, watching the race on tv, or listening to it on the radio, I’m sure all fans can agree breathing in the methanol fumes and deafening roars of the engines make the race complete in their hearts. Not only does NASCAR risk losing a major fan count, they also risk losing big money from sponsors such as Mobile 1 and Sunoco, the official fuel of NASCAR and without their major sponsors, NASCAR itself could face possible extinction. Formula E may have fans that enjoy the lack of noise and fumes but they also have the upper hand with being a global series while NASCAR is pure American. Some argue that the idea of NASCAR would just be profited somewhere else by someone new, making the polution problem not actually disappear but be