Drivers

Aerodynamic Forces

From the Lab Notebook: Las Vegas and the Mysteriously Missing Oil Tank Cover

2013-03-06 dr. diandra 1

As we head for Las Vegas this weekend, I thought I’d repost on of my most popular posts from stockcarscience.com on 3/5/2008 since the redirects for the old stockcarscience.com site don’t work reliably. The post is about Carl Edwards’ 2008 win at Las Vegas when the team was subsequently fined for having their oil tank cover lid askew at the end of the race. I have edited the post extensively, adding some new information and better graphics. […]

Center of Gravity

Did Danica Get the Daytona 500 Pole Because of Her Weight Advantage?

2013-02-20 dr. diandra 6

Did Danica Patrick win the Daytona 500 pole because she has a weight advantage? […]

Biffle, Greg

Secrets of the Gen-6 Car: Super-strength Windshields

2013-02-15 dr. diandra 7

Don’t let its good looks fool you: NASCAR made the Gen-6 car even more safe than the CoT. […]

Cautions

Will the Gen-6 Car Affect the Number of Cautions?

2013-01-25 dr. diandra 4

I love the Gen-6 car. Not as much as I love the Nationwide cars (but that’s got more to do with what I drive than it does the cars). The big question is whether the decrease in cautions is going to be changed because of the new car.Let’s start (as we usually do) with the new car. […]

Busch, Kyle

Is There Really a Second-Place Curse?

2012-12-07 dr. diandra 0

One of the commentators after the final race in Homestead mentioned that Jimmie Johnson should be happy he finished in third because it allows him to avoid the “dreaded second-place curse”.
Anytime someone says something like that, it makes me wonder whether there really is a curse, or whether that person had just been talking to Carl Edwards. So I analyzed a little data and guess what… there really IS a second place curse. […]

Concussion

NASCAR Concussions II: A Screening Test to Avoid Relying Entirely on the Driver

2012-10-15 dr. diandra 3

I was lucky enough to speak with Dr. Mark Lovell, an innovator in neurocognitive testing inbetween talks at a conference he was attending. Dr. Lovell came to my attention as the developer of the ImPACT (Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment Testing) test, which was one of the tools used to evaluate Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s concussion. […]

Concussion

Concussions – What Are They and Why Stop Racing?

2012-10-11 dr. diandra 0

We all know that concussions are caused by hits to the head, but what actually IS a concussion and why is one forcing Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to step out of the car and effectively take himself out of the running for a championship? […]

Asphalt

Dover: Why Concrete Races Differently than Asphalt

2012-09-28 dr. diandra 18

One of the questions you’ll hear drivers and crew chiefs asked a lot this weekend at Dover is how the concrete track affects the racing. Here’s how: […]

Allmendinger, A.J.

Talking about Things You Don’t Understand

2012-07-26 dr. diandra 8

Some clarifications in response to some very confused statements over the past few days. 1.  Amphetamine is a particular molecule: It isn’t a category.  Stimulant is the category.  Amphetamine has nine carbon atoms, 13 hydrogen […]

Allmendinger, A.J.

What is Does it Mean to be “Nanograms Over”?

2012-07-25 dr. diandra 6

As a nanomaterials research, I usually love seeing the word ‘nano’ in the news, but not in reference to finding out that AJ Allmendinger’s ‘B’ sample tested positive “within nanograms”.  I would have been very […]