NASCAR recently announced that it surpassed 10 million competition miles on Sunoco Green E15, a biofuel blended with 15 percent American-made ethanol. The achievement was celebrated during the NASCAR Sprint Cup SeriesTM race at Phoenix International Raceway. The 10 million miles were accumulated across practice, qualifying and racing laps since the biofuel was adopted by the sport.

Six years ago, NASCAR entered into a groundbreaking partnership with Sunoco and American Ethanol, launching its long-term biofuels program to reduce emissions across its three national series. After an exhaustive analysis, Sunoco formulated Sunoco Green E15 to allow for a seamless transition, and the biofuel made its debut at Daytona International Speedway in 2011. All the ethanol for Green E15 is produced from American-grown corn at Sunoco’s ethanol manufacturing facility in Fulton, N.Y.

“As we approach 10 million miles on Sunoco Green E15 across our three national series, it’s evident that the renewable, higher ethanol blended fuel performs flawlessly against our rigorous racing conditions,” said Brent Dewar, NASCAR Chief Operating Officer. “This remarkable milestone is the result of an industry-wide commitment to demonstrate high performance racing with reduced emissions, while educating our fans about the benefits of sustainable and renewable American ethanol.”

Since transitioning to the biofuel, NASCAR has helped validate the fuel’s qualities in front of an audience of millions of NASCAR fans and is helping shift attitudes and behaviors around the use of ethanol. According to new research conducted in July, when compared to non-fans, NASCAR fans are more likely to support the use of ethanol blended gasoline to fuel NASCAR race cars, their own car, and cars on the road today to increase U.S. energy independence. Source: Custom Environment-Related Tracker commissioned by NASCAR and conducted by Toluna (July 2016).