Gone from the 2011 Nascar Sprint Cup series is the catch can man, and in are new ventilated fuel filler cans that will hold the new E15 ethanol based gas that the Sprint Cup drivers will be using to power their cup cars for the new season.
This is where things are going to get interesting.In the past the job of the catch can man was not only to catch the gas coming out of the car when the tank was full,but also to adjust the right height of the rear of the car as it pitted, if adjustments needed to be made.
In the past the gas guy was always done fueling the car before the tire changers were done with their job, but with the new ventilated gas can it has many more parts to it that is hard to line up correctly slowing down the gas guys job, so now the tire changers are going to be done while the car is still getting fueled up, and if that isn’t enough to turn things around in the past the team would weigh what was left in the gas can and also what was in the catch can to determine how much gas actually made it into the tank of the car. With the new can you pretty much are going to have the can to deal with.
It’s going to be very interesting during the Daytona 500,to see how these pit stops play out and what crew member will be making the adjustments to the rear of the car. From what I can see the gas guy is going to play a huge roll in determining how long the pit stop is and also if all of the fuel actually made it into the tank.
With the new gas can there’s a clear tube that shows the gas guy when the system is full by letting out a burp and splashing gas up into the clear tube. Now here’s the tricky part if you’re the gas guy; do you burp the car once or twice?
Man these guys are going to be under some pressure. I’m not sure if I’d sleep the night before the Daytona 500 if I played that role.
Image Borrowed from www.nascar.com
Hope the fuel allotment goes up w/etoh mix.