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Blog Entry 176 of 356 I'm Brian Olson and I approved this Blog.
Politics to life in general, a view from a slightly right of center/off-kilter guy.

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What Dale Jr. taught me about gas mileage.

Contributed by: Brian Olson   on 6/16/2008

Dale Earnhardt Junior fans are happy today, he won yesterday's race at Michigan International Speedway. It's been a couple of years since he last won, but the switch this year to Hendrick Motorsports from Wicked Step Mother Racing aka DEI already has non-points victories earlier this year at Daytona. Plus he's been consistantly finishing in the top 5, which has him #3 in points overall.

But he didn't win win yesterday for being the fasest, he won for being one of the slower cars.

As the laps were counting down, few mileage became key. At top race speeds, he would be about 6-8 laps short. So crew chief Tony Eury Jr. told Dale to start saving fuel.

One way you do that is come off the gas a little earlier before going into a curve, and getting on the gas a little later coming out of the curve. Plus instead of mashing the gas pedal down hard, you ease back on the throttle.

It was enough to win, although I wouldn't recommend the turning the engine on and off during the green-white-check situation which ultimately gave him just enough to finish and win, by going slower.

As a Junior fan who races Chevrolet's (Even though I drive a Ford-owned product) I've decided to try some of Dale's strategy on my morning commute this week and I'll keep you posted on fuel mileage both to and from work between Highlands Ranch and Lakewood.

The good news is most of my trip is on C-470 where I can get good mileage because I'm on the highway, little stop and go.

I drive a Volvo XC-70 Cross County AWD wagon, five cylinders with turbo. I don't now exactly how accurate the average fuel mileage read-out on my car's computer is, but it's the only measurement I've got. (No I'm not going to do the gas mileage math each time I fill up.)

So today, rather than stomp on the gas, I eased on the gas. Turbo chargers burn gas when you stomp on the gas pedal to give you added power when you really need it, but use more fuel. I coasted when I could and averaged about 5 mph less than I normally do. It was a cool morning so I didn't need the AC.

By the way, when I took flying lessons years ago, my instructor taught me early on not to jam the throttle, but rather increase power "like a knife going through butter."

My average this morning? 26.9 mpg. On the highway I was well above 28, but stop and go on Santa Fe and driving in Littleton brought my average down.

Tomorrow I'll let you know how I did coming home tonight, plus again my average for the commute in.

At the end of the week I'll average it all out and see if I get a beef or bouquet for my efforts.

But take it from me and Dale Jr., sometimes going slower is actually faster.



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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Brian Olson

Highlands Ranch , CO

Brian Olson has posted 356 blog entries and 15 comments since joining on 11/30/2007. Brian Olson 's average blog rating is 4.74.
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