A Detergent Emerges as a Star at Daytona If not for the track fire that delayed the Daytona 500 for two hours Monday night, few would have known that Tide detergent can launder grape juice stains and a track burned by a jet fuel fire. The Daytona International Speedway keeps a hefty supply of powdered Tide for emergencies, much like a family with young kids who like to play in the mud. On Monday night, the track's crew used six 14-pound boxes in the cleanup after Juan Pablo Montoya's car crashed into a track jet dryer, causing as much as 200 gallons of jet fuel to ignite into a fireball. The Tide was applied after the fire was suppressed, after excess fuel was absorbed with Safety Kleen and after the surface was hosed down, said Lenny Santiago, a track spokesman. The scrubbing with Tide was followed by another hosing, an application of bonding material on the affected part of the track, and a jet drying. Tide is kept in stock to remove chemical agents that can hurt the asphalt track, he said. "Jet fuel is one of the worst agents you can have," he added. Procter & Gamble was so tickled by the unexpected and unusual use of its product that it posted an article on Facebook with the headline "Tide Helps Save Daytona 500." The article included a handy explanation of the "water-hating" molecules that loosen and remove oil and grease from fabrics. Not that asphalt is a fabric, but those molecules still did the trick. But P&G was lucky. Tide happened to be the detergent of choice, perhaps because of its history as a Nascar sponsor. Past "Tide Ride" drivers included Darrell Waltrip, Ricky Rudd and Ricky Craven. Tide is no longer a Nascar sponsor. "It could have been any detergent," Santiago said.