Initially, NASCAR indicated that it would transition to fuel injection midway through the 2011 season. They ultimately decided to delay the transition for one more year. Starting in the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, carburetors have been officially replaced with fuel injection - making the technology legal after 55 years of being "outlawed." The first race in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series history to use fuel injection was the 2012 running of the traditionally carburetor-friendly Daytona 500; which took take place on February 26. The first series of tests that were applied to the new fuel injection system began on the Thursday practice prior to the 2011 Quaker State 400 race; Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. was the fastest driver inside a fuel injection vehicle and Ford was the quickest vehicle. Stock car racing technology had fallen behind the technology used in vehicles that are mass-produced for the general public. The reason behind this is that NASCAR didn't take advantage of fuel injection when fuel injected vehicles started to almost completely replace carburetor-powered vehicles during the late 1980s.