At Small Tracks, High Fuel Prices Put Racers in a Pinch

The truck-and-trailer rigs that log long miles to haul the cars to tracks generally have miles-to-the-gallon averages in the single digits. And with diesel costing roughly $5 a gallon, about double what it was a year ago, the escalating price of fuel is altering the already skimpy economics of lower-tier racing, the type that takes place on the half-mile dirt oval at New Egypt Speedway and at most tracks across the country. On Saturday night, 134 racecars in five classifications ? from relatively glamorous modifieds to the scratch-and-dent cars of outlaw stocks ? arrived to test their mettle, and metal, against the others.