Daytona Speedway Makes It Official: Chicken Fat Rules

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First it showcased the new Mazda6 running the Rolex 24 endurance race on biodiesel from chicken fat, and now Daytona International Speedway has tapped a chicken fat motor oil as the venue’s “Official Motor Oil.” Well, both the biodiesel and the motor oil include other animals fats as well as plant oils along with the chickeny goodness, but the basic idea is the same. The racing world is stepping in as a green ambassador, showing off the high performance capabilities of “home-grown,” renewable fuels and oils to millions of racing fans across the U.S.

renewable G-OIL is official motor oil of Daytona International Speedway

Chicken Fat Motor Oil for Daytona International Speedway

Daytona’s new official oil is produced by Green Earth Technologies under the name G-OIL.

According to independent tests cited by Green Earth, the carbon footprint of its 5W-30 G-OIL is about 67 percent less than a conventional counterpart.

In addition to replacing petrochemicals in its products with domestically sourced animal fats and plant oils, Green Earth puts its products in bottles made of 30 percent post-consumer recyclable plastic, it uses labels made from recycled paper, and it prints those labels with water based inks.

As the official oil of Daytona International Speedway, G-OIL products will be used throughout the venue’s operations, including shuttle buses, landscaping equipment, and safety, maintenance and service vehicles.

Not the First Time Around for G-OIL

The new affiliation is not G-OIL’s first spin around the Daytona track. Right around this time last year, G-OIL sponsored the TriStar Motorsports Toyota Camry driven by Tayler Malsam, which finished sixth in the DRIVE4COPD 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series event.

That puts Green Earth Technologies just one degree of separation away from NASCAR’S new young driver safety campaign, for which Malsam is a spokesperson. The campaign, which launched last year, takes a holistic approach to safety by placing it in the context of environmental stewardship through responsible driving.

Daytona is also not the only NASCAR venue where Green Earth’s products are popping up. The company also has an affiliation NASCAR, which puts it just one degree away from the U.S. EPA through a green partnership that launched last year. NASCAR will be working on its suppliers to improve their sustainability profile and it will use its high profile venues to introduce fans to EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE) label.

That’s just part of the agreement. With NASCAR as a platform, the opportunities for green publicity can go into some interesting places, a NASCAR-ized Toyota Prius being just one example.

Daytona International Speedway Goes Green!

Well, baby steps. Aside from hitching up with Green Earth Technologies, last year Daytona began participating in a NASCAR-wide tree planting program, but so far its green mission statement is a little vague on the details.


That could change, though, as other NASCAR venues are setting the pace. In particular, Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania, aka the “Tricky Triangle,” got a jump on everybody else with a massive 3-megawatt, grid connected solar installation back in 2010.

Image (cropped): Daytona International Speedway by inazakira

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Tina Casey

Tina specializes in advanced energy technology, military sustainability, emerging materials, biofuels, ESG and related policy and political matters. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on LinkedIn, Threads, or Bluesky.

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