As many of you Nascar fans know the race last weekend was in Texas and this weekend it will be in Talledaga. Interstate 20 is the direct route between the two race sites. Monday, Donna and I traveled I-20 from Georgia to Louisiana. The east bound traffic was full of NASCAR.

If you figure that there are about 50 Sprint Cup teams, 50 Nationwide teams, and 50 Camping World truck teams, That is 150 car haulers making the trip. Add an equal amount of support haulers for souvenir and merchandise vendors, The Speed Channel, ESPN, Fox Broadcasting, Goodyear Tires, Radio communications and others. It made for quite a parade.

In addition to all the haulers, the Motorhomes were just as impressive. Dozens of huge multimillion dollar motorhomes, all towing a pickup truck, and a golf cart loaded in the back of the truck.

The caravan seem to run in groups of 5 or 6 units traveling together.

On Tuesday we traveled from Monroe to Shreveport and passed a few more that must have stayed in Texas an extra day.

All in all, quite an impressive move of equipment from track to track. Wonder how much Diesel was purchased for that trip?

Nick

OK, assuming 800 miles, 6mpg, 150 trucks comes to roughly 19950 Gallons at 3.95 a gallon comes to $78,000 ....

I chuckle even now thinking back to the gas crisis in the 80s that came down big on racing because of the bad mileage the cars got on the track. This is exactly why are politicians and rabble rousers are easy to spot as such morons. The gas used on the raceway is but a drop in the bucket compared to the fuel used for the teams and fans to get there, yet it was too difficult math for them I guess.

We were at the Sebring 12hr a few weeks ago. Easily 150,000 fans there for 4 days. Racing is certainly an industry

I rarely have gone through a week lately without hearing some know-it-all say, "If they'd just open up drilling in the Gulf and everywhere else with no restrictions, gas would drop to a buck a gallon in a week", like this has any bearing on the reality of futures, stocks, and the investments of the people who are really in charge of such things.

The government has to put a stop on gas and oil options that were originally created as a hedge for large users. Now anybody can buy them and most never exercise them, they just sell them for a profit . Wait, did I just say the government has to stop rich people from getting richer ? What the hell am I thinking ?
Sorry for the thread drift...just venting!

if the same trucks fueled in Nevada (4.23/gal) instead of TN (3.95) the same trip costs $ 84,568. Would you like to know how much tax flows into the states treasure chest of off that ???

Bruce, no apologies needed for venting!

But if you want to vent about something, consider this:
- Treasury and Fed policy mandated "Quantitative Easing"
- In other words, they printed more money
- this printing continues to weaken the value of your savings
- the newly printed money was given to large banks, hedge funds, and so forth, in an effort to stimulate the economy
- those managers decided the best investment was in the oil/gasoline futures market
- fuel prices up, and rather than stimulate the economy, the real effect is the opposite

Vent away!
Matt