Sunoco New Fuel of NASCAR

[stymie]

.c The Associated Press

Sunoco will replace Union 76 as the official fuel of NASCAR's top three series, beginning in 2004.

An industry source, who spoke Thursday to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said Sunoco will supply all the fuel used in NASCAR's Winston Cup -- which will become the Nextel Cup next year -- Busch and Craftsman Truck Series.

NASCAR planned to make the announcement at a news conference Friday at Michigan International Speedway

2004 Will bring many new looks to NASCAR, gone are the Orange 76 Towers at every track to be replaced with



Not a bad choice as I remember them previously sponsoring a car in NASCAR and Busch, Driven by Terry Labonte, Brad Noffsinger and others I don't remember.

[Racewriter]

Re: Sunoco New Fuel of NASCAR

Originally posted by stymie
2004 Will bring many new looks to NASCAR, gone are the Orange 76 Towers at every track to be replaced with



Not a bad choice as I remember them previously sponsoring a car in NASCAR and Busch, Driven by Terry Labonte, Brad Noffsinger and others I don't remember.

Their CAM2 subsidiary also sponsored Bobby Allison and other Penske drivers back in the 70s.

[dog-ring]

Is Sunoco still a viable company on their own or are they part of a comglomerate?

[Indy Red]

Originally posted by dog-ring
Is Sunoco still a viable company on their own or are they part of a comglomerate?

Dog
Sun Oil Co
Sunoco, Inc., headquartered in Philadelphia, Pa., is a leading manufacturer and marketer of petroleum and petrochemical products. Sunoco:

operates four domestic refineries with approxi- mately 730,000 barrels per day of crude oil processing capacity;



markets gasoline under the Sunoco® brand through approximately 4,300 retail outlets primarily in 23 states from Maine to Florida, including the District of Columbia, and west to Indiana;



has interests in over 11,000 miles of crude oil and refined product pipelines and 34 product terminals;



has gross annual production capacity of petrochemicals exceeding 5 billion pounds, largely chemical intermediates used in the manufacture of fibers, plastics, film and resins;



produces two million tons per year of metallurgical-grade coke; and



employs approximately 14,000 men and women dedicated to bringing quality products and services to the marketplace.

[cmjc80]

Originally posted by dog-ring
Is Sunoco still a viable company on their own or are they part of a comglomerate?

Sunoco purchased Atlantic a few years back, but other than that they are pretty much still their own company.

FYI(in case anyone is keeping score at home)

Union/Uocal 76 was purchased by Tosco in 1996(they are the ones that fired "The Hat Man"). Tosco was bought by Conoco in 2001 and Conoco merged with Phillips 66 in 2002.

[dog-ring]

Thanks guys ! I guess I could have used Google but I have been busy

[SamC]

The only deal is that is concerning with SUNOCO is that it is a fairly small player in the overall gasoline retailing market, and only does business in 23 states, none west of Indiana.

That means logistical problems for several races, actually about 1/3rd of the schedule. Assuming they don't just get some other company to supply the fuel in the west and just brand it as SUNOCO. And, of course, they are paying a national ad rate for ads that half the country has no use for.

[FCYTravis]

Sunoco is a major race fuel supplier - they are the official gasoline of the SCCA's pro series and the official gasoline of IMSA/ALMS. Makes sense they'd go for the Winston Cup sponsorship when it came up for grabs.

[Racewriter]

Originally posted by SamC
The only deal is that is concerning with SUNOCO is that it is a fairly small player in the overall gasoline retailing market, and only does business in 23 states, none west of Indiana.

That means logistical problems for several races, actually about 1/3rd of the schedule. Assuming they don't just get some other company to supply the fuel in the west and just brand it as SUNOCO. And, of course, they are paying a national ad rate for ads that half the country has no use for.

I'd guarantee that you can buy Sunoco race fuel in any of the 48 contiguous states. Sunoco Purple is all I use. And, they have a higher profile overall than Unocal, so it's a winner all the way around.

Of course, they could be thinking expansion, too.

[mec]

I have found a little power increase with Sunoco over Unocal..

Maybe Cam King or someone has some more input on this?

[cmjc80]

Sunoco is still 1000 times bigger than the Unocal 76 brand. The only place the average consumer can find them today is through their motor oil brand.

There haven't been any 76 stations since National Truckstops was bought out by TravelCenters America. National wasn't even a Unocal company, they just owned the station marketing rights to the Union 76 name.

Just a little more FYI, this is the first time in NASCAR's history that they had to replace the official fuel supplier. Pure Oil was the original supplier in 1948 and stayed until 1965 when the company was aquired by Union 76 who just continued the relationship when they eliminated the Pure Oil brand. I believe NASCAR's fuel, since 1948, has always come from the same refinery in Texas.

Recently, Pure stations have begun popping up across the southeast. Though no longer a real oil company, the Pure name was sold by Unocal in the early 90's for marketing purposes only. The brand is now used as a common name by independent station owners much like the IGA brand is used by independent grocery store owners.

OK, enough useless info for today

[$noopy]

Re: Sunoco New Fuel of NASCAR

Originally posted by stymie
2004 Will bring many new looks to NASCAR, gone are the Orange 76 Towers at every track to be replaced with



Not a bad choice as I remember them previously sponsoring a car in NASCAR and Busch, Driven by Terry Labonte, Brad Noffsinger and others I don't remember.

Add Sterlin Marlin to the Cup list.

[SamC]

As I understand it:

Pure was a southern brand. It began the relationship with NASCAR in the early 60s. It was later bought by Union Oil of California (Union 76). The Pure brand disappeared, Union kept it registered to prevent others from gloming on to it.

Union 76 rebranded as Unocal 76 in the mid-80s.

In the early 90s, the company split into 3 parts. Unocal 76 was now "just" an exploration company (which means its really huge). Tosco 76 took over the refining and marketing company and owned the rights to the names in that market area. National 76 owned the brand relative to the extensive chain of truckstops.

Then National 76 merged with TA. It has mostly quit using the 76 brand name.

Tosco 76 merged into ConocoPhillips, which now owns the brands Conoco, Phillips 66, Union 76, and Unocal 76 (and Pure).

The company has liscensed the old "Pure" brand to independent dealers here and there in recent times.

As to Sunoco, its RACING FUELS division does business in 48 states, but its retail gasoline business only in 23, none west of Indiana in the north or Alabama in south. I doubt they are looking at this from a "sell racing fuel" but from a "sell retail fuel" perspective.

[fivehundred2go]

They were the sponser of the Mark Donahue / Roger Penske owned winning car of the Indianapolis 500 and also had his Trans-Am Camero's prior to that - I can now bring out the blue and yellow 260 racing jacket (my first) out of moth balls.

[CamKing]

Originally posted by mec
I have found a little power increase with Sunoco over Unocal..

Maybe Cam King or someone has some more input on this?

The Sunoco is probably a lower octane then the Unocal. A lower octain fuel will make more HP then the higher octane. The only reason to run a higher octane fuel is to keep the engine from detonating.