As gas prices soar across the country, the thought of paying $6.25 a gallon would make any consumer cringe.

Yet that’s what it costs in NASCAR, where race teams use a special Sunoco 260 GTX unleaded fuel to fill their cars. Although the gas is free — part of Sunoco’s agreement as NASCAR’s official fuel supplier — it doesn’t mean car owners and drivers aren’t feeling the pain at the pump.

“It affects all of us, anybody that’s in business,” said car owner Richard Childress. “Getting our cars to the racetracks costs a ton in gas money for the haulers. Bringing our people to the tracks, the rising costs of jet fuel. It’s very, very expensive to do what we’re doing.”

Childress, owner of a highly successful race team, isn’t complaining. Nor are the drivers who pull in multimillion dollar salaries and don’t flinch at $85 fill-ups on their luxury SUV’s.

But no one in NASCAR is immune to the weakening economy and rising costs on fuel. Just because they can afford it, doesn’t mean they aren’t feeling the pinch.

Under Sunoco’s deal with NASCAR, teams are provided free fuel at any sanctioned test, practice or race for all three top divisions. A company spokeswoman said it’s impossible to determine just how much fuel is used per weekend because of fluctuations in schedules, weather and the teams’ practice times each week.

When teams tested earlier this week at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, their gas was once again free.

But the good teams test a lot, traveling all over the South to facilities not sanctioned by NASCAR. Sunoco doesn’t cover those all-day sessions, and a race team typically brings a 55-gallon drum of gas to get them through the test.

Of course, it’s all budgeted for long before the season even starts. And teams aren’t affected by the oft-changing fluctuations in fuel costs under the Sunoco deal.

Even so, there are critics who complain that NASCAR races are dipping into the national supply. But NASCAR officials claim the amount of fuel being used — less than 175,000 gallons per year on the Sprint Cup Series — doesn’t come close to the 366 million gallons that Americans average in daily usage.

So NASCAR has no current plans to shorten races, as it did in the early 1970s when OPEC hoarded oil to increase prices, causing long lines at the pumps.

But the pain is still felt away from the track, where teams have noticed a significant increase in transportation costs.

From sending diesel-chugging haulers across the country to transport the race cars, to the exorbitant jump in jet fuel, costs are soaring in simply getting drivers, crews and equipment to each event.

“We’re really noticing it in credit card costs,” said Jay Frye, general manager of Red Bull Racing. “We’re getting bills back for thousands and thousands of dollars in diesel fuel that’s needed to get the haulers to the track each week. So every time gas prices go up, it affects our monthly budget because we’re paying a bigger gas bill than we did last month.”

With diesel fuel now over $4.00 a gallon, and each hauler holding roughly 300 gallons, fill-ups now cost more than $1,200 for a truck that only gets between 4.5 and 7.5 miles per gallon.