NASCAR’s Roush promotes propane power for cars

If Jack Roush has anything to say about it, propane soon will be used for more than grilling hamburgers and hot dogs at the infield cookout.

In the wake of Sunday’s Daytona 500 victory by Roush-Fenway NASCAR team driver Matt Kenseth, Roush was back at his headquarters outside Detroit this week to promote his company’s new line of propane-fueled Ford trucks and vans.

A veteran of racing and the automotive industry, Roush loves the sound of a snarling gasoline-powered V-8 as much as the next guy — probably more. But Roush sees alternative fuels as a positive step in the struggling U.S. auto industry’s journey out of the economic wilderness.

“We’re getting ready for the upswing here,” Roush said, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “The automobile industry is going to survive. We’re going to morph ourselves into a shape where we can have better market share for the things that we do than we’ve had in the past. And life’s going to be good.”

Roush said alternative fuels are “certainly not a fix-all,” but represent potential good news for an industry beleaguered by talk of bailouts and bankruptcy.

And Roush’s decision to embrace alternative fuels — he’s touting propane as an immediate answer, and his company is working on electric and hydrogen power projects for the future — is another example of a slow shift toward environmental awareness within the NASCAR community.

Although the Indy Racing League has switched to ethanol, NASCAR only recently switched from leaded to unleaded fuel and its cars still use carburetors instead of fuel injection.

But NASCAR recently hired a director of “green innovation,” and NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France has spoken to former vice president Al Gore about making the sport more environmentally friendly.

Not that Roush expects NASCAR to race on an alternative fuel anytime soon.

“If you wanted to look at electric motors, I guess you could race slot cars,” Roush joked. “They wouldn’t make enough noise to generate excitement. I don’t think you could sell tickets for that.”

But wouldn’t it be easier to talk to your buddies in the grandstands as the cars whooshed by in Prius-like silence?

“You could do that,” Roush said. “You could also go to sleep.”

Clearly, Roush is more interested in getting alternative-fuel vehicles on the road than on the track.

Although Roush is best known for the success of his NASCAR team and the trademark fedora he wears in the garage area, he says only about 500 of his 3,000 employees work on racing. The rest work on other business interests that include engineering projects for the automotive industry and beyond.

And in stark contrast to many businesses in the hard-hit state of Michigan, Roush is planning to expand. He sees the propane fuel truck conversions as an area for growth.

“The thing that I’ve done in running my company that’s kept it viable is that we have been quick to give up on things that were no longer timely or needed, and we’ve morphed ourselves into a new form, a new shape, that would follow the needs of the automotive industry and the interest of things that were happening in the economy,” Roush said.

Roush’s propane truck conversions will be marketed primarily to large business fleets. Although there are an estimated 2,500 public propane refueling stations in the U.S., Roush said the propane-powered trucks make the most sense for companies large enough to maintain their own refueling stations.

The Roush propane conversion isn’t cheap — it costs just shy of $9,000 for parts and installation on a Ford pickup.

When combined with federal and state tax incentives that subsidize major chunks of the conversion and subsequent propane purchases, Roush estimates the cost will justify itself within a year. According to Roush’s research, business fleets hold on to their vehicles much longer.

Propane also burns cleaner than gasoline — Roush says his modified trucks will be certified by the strict California Air Resources Board — and propane generally doesn’t need to be imported because it is a byproduct of the refining process for oil and natural gas that often goes to waste.

Those big flames you see shooting out of refinery smokestacks?

“For the most part, that’s burning off propane,” Roush said.

Roush says the propane-powered truck gets the same horsepower and torque as the gasoline version.

“It’s seamless,” Roush said. “You can’t tell the difference.”

However, Roush acknowledges an approximate 13 percent drop in fuel economy because a gallon of propane contains less energy than a gallon of gas.

The loss in efficiency can be offset when large business fleets take advantage of wholesale propane prices that have been below $1 per gallon this year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Web site.

Roush’s propane push runs parallel to the widely publicized natural gas transportation fuel initiative being promoted by Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens. And while others tout electric cars as a better solution for U.S. energy needs — and hydrogen fuel cells as the ultimate answer — proponents of propane say it’s ready to go today.

“The infrastructure’s not there,” Roush said of natural gas. “And of course, we’re years away from the prospect of getting infrastructure, meaningful infrastructure, for hydrogen.”

Roush says it’s time to act now, for the sake of the country and its automakers.

“Assuming that we just don’t say it’s going to go the way of the wind-up clock or the steam locomotive, how are we going to save this thing?”