ED HINTON Like fans, Earnhardt decries fuel tactic

Sometimes you think the Earnhardt appeal to the public is intangible, metaphysical, mysterious. Other times, the reasons are quite obvious.
The Earnhardts always had a knack for speaking for the multitudes.
The biggest fan outcry this season is under way, over so many victories by fuel mileage -- the latest being Ryan Newman's win at Pocono last Sunday. That made two mileage wins in the past three races for Newman, who cruised to victory at Chicagoland Speedway after Kevin Harvick ran out of gas while chasing him.
Newman and his Penske Racing team love it. Both Newman and crew chief Matt Borland are engineers, so calculation is fun and exciting to them.
Other views
But among the people who call themselves at least casual NASCAR fans and those who call themselves hard-cores, you might not find 20 who like to see races won that way.
So leave it to Dale Earnhardt Jr., natural-born man of the people, to say, "I'm getting tired of hearing it from my [pit-crew] guys when they tell me to save fuel. I don't think I've ever had anybody tell me how to save fuel. ... I don't think anybody knows."
Oh, there are ways -- but not for those who race in the Earnhardt mode.
Earnhardt's late father could have won the Daytona 500 right out of the box as a rookie, in 1979 -- and avoided the frustration of failing to win NASCAR's showcase race until his 20th try, in 1998 -- had it not been for gas mileage.
Last-lap wreck
That '79 race is remembered mainly for the last-lap wreck of Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison as they dueled for the lead, then the post-race set-to between Yarborough and Allison's brother, Bobby, as Richard Petty inherited the win.
Earnhardt would have been right in the mix had he not had to pit for fuel a few laps from the end. Part of his all-out style was a right foot that stomped on and off the accelerator so vehemently that his cars gulped more gasoline than others. It would cost him other Daytona 500s, and races at other venues.
But that's the kind of driving NASCAR's popularity was built on. Pioneers such as Fireball Roberts and Junior Johnson were bad on fuel mileage.
Darrell Waltrip, on the other hand, was excellent at it, and indeed won his only Daytona 500, in 1989, on fumes -- just after Earnhardt had pitted for gas late in that race.
Newman doesn't say, but he probably uses the same method Waltrip did, backing off the throttle a little early entering a turn, then getting back on the pedal a little later exiting the turn.
Speed differential
Allowing for the speed differential, it's not much different than the way you drive to your local filling station when your fuel warning light is on -- gently on the accelerator.
Newman also has been winning gambles that late caution flags would come out, knowing the mileage is twice as good while cruising under yellow as it is under green.
What's different about the recent tactics, as opposed to mileage wins that have occurred down through the decades in NASCAR, is that the suspense is gone.
Time was when it was so common for a driver to be leading, roll the dice on fuel and coast to a stop before the finish that the risk was clearly high, and therefore entertaining.
Little miscalculation
But now, with engineers such as Newman and Borland and all those calculators and laptops in the pits, there's little miscalculation anymore. There's no suspense. You know when they try it they're going to make it.
The luck of the draw -- a wreck -- might help ease the problem. Fewer caution flags would deny Newman and others so many leisure laps to factor in.
Another remedy might be for NASCAR to mandate, for all tracks, those half-size fuel cells now required at Daytona and Talladega.
But for now, Earnhardt and his constituency -- the overwhelming majority of NASCAR enthusiasts -- are sick and tired of it.
XEd Hinton writes for The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel.