NASCAR’s top three series will race with an “E15” ethanol blend next season instead of straight unleaded high-test gasoline. The fuel will debut during Speed Week next February at Daytona.

The fuel will be blended at Sunoco’s facility in Marcus Hook, Pa. It will be pumped directly from tankers at each speedway rather than from on-site underground storage tanks.

Well, of course it will! Alcohol is a decent octane booster but it evaporates prodigiously and is wildly hygroscopic. Sunoco wouldn’t be able to guarantee the mix ratio, water content, or octane from a tank underground and the other classes wouldn’t use it.

Here’s the peeve: NASCAR stock cars ain’t stock so what they do on the track has nothing to do with what we do on the street but you can bet this is a marketing bonanza for the far green and a boondoggle for those of us who have to commute to work. Or drive to an island.