Winning $2,000 worth of gasoline in a contest sounds like a pretty good deal to a lot of people, but for someone who drives as much as Fresnan Rob Krider, there's a big question about just how far that will take him.

Krider, a race-car driver and mechanic, automotive columnist and blogger, was one of five grand-prize winners announced today by Shell Oil in the company's V-Power "Fuel My Passion" contest. The prize: "gasoline for a year," awarded as $2,000 in Shell gift cards.

Krider and the other contest winners were chosen in a nationwide Internet vote among entrants who sent in pictures of their cars and, in 100 words, described how Shell V-Power gasoline "fuels their passion" for driving.

Krider, 36, entered a photo and blurb about his Krider Racing 1969 Volkswagen "Baja Bug" (above)  that finished first in its class and second overall in the 2009 Beetleball Endurance Rally, a 450-mile Long Beach-to-Las Vegas race last month.

Krider Racing is an operation that is divided between Fresno, where Krider has lived since 2001, and Napa, where he was raised and his father is a Napa City Council member. Krider has been involved in racing since he was 16. His younger brother, Randy, lives in Napa and also drives for the racing program.

That means there's an awful lot of driving back and forth to shops in both cities -- something that's likely to chew through those Shell gift cards in far less than a year.

"That $2,000 worth of gas isn't going to change my lifestyle very much," Krider said. "But what's cool about it is that it all came down to Internet votes. It's pretty neat to see that we got the votes to win."

As he talked in a telephone interview today, Krider was busy working on a Ford Mustang for another upcoming race event: "The Forum Wars," to be taped Friday for SpeedTV at Irwindale Raceway, in which Krider will race a street-legal Ford Mustang to represent Mustang online car forums against another muscle-car nameplate.

And Krider's two children -- 12-year-old son Gus and 10-year-old daughter Addy -- are starting to follow in their dad's footsteps, guiding soapbox-derby carts in annual races at Woodward Park.

When he's not behind the wheel or under the hood, Krider writes the occasional "Man Overboard" humor column for the Santa Maria Sun newspaper, the Racer Boy blog for SpeedSportLife.com and also blogs for CarDomain.com.