Racing

Aerodynamic Forces

Drafting: Regular and Bump

2017-05-05 dr. diandra 0

I looked through the blog and realized that I haven’t really blogged about drafting. I’ve blogged about all the rules NASCAR’s enacted in the last couple of years to try to control drafting, but not drafting […]

Graphs and Charts

Are Posted Lap Speeds Really Accurate?

2017-04-21 dr. diandra 9

After every practice and qualifying session, NASCAR puts out one or more sheets of paper that look like this: This tells you who went how fast qualifying at Atlanta a couple weeks ago. I only included the […]

Graphs and Charts

Reverse Engineering NASCAR Stage Lengths

2017-04-07 dr. diandra 7

Stage Racing The 2017 NASCAR season brought us stage racing: Segmenting a race into three parts, each of which has a winner (and point reward). If you’re me, the first thing you wondered was not […]

Building Cars

Safety vs. Speed: 2017 Changes to the Chassis

2017-02-17 dr. diandra 4

The Evolution of the Stock Car ADDITION: If you are more comfortable with Portuguese, check out this translation by Artur Weber and Adelina Domingos – and thanks to them for being interested enough in my […]

Bristol Motor Speedway

Will Tire Limits Improve Racing?

2017-02-03 dr. diandra 0

Will 2017 Tire Limit Rules Require Harder Tires? Back in the day, the only thing that limited how many sets of tires you could use in Cup-level racing was your budget. It was different in […]

Aerodynamic Forces

Will Toyota’s New Nose Change the Cup Series Balance?

2017-01-20 dr. diandra 4

The unveiling last Monday of Toyota’s new redesigned race car for 2017 got a little lost between Junior’s wedding and Carl Edwards’ surprise ‘stepping back’ from NASCAR. But every time a manufacturer redesigns and engine or […]

Cautions

Can NASCAR Stop Secondary Accidents?

2017-01-06 dr. diandra 2

January is named after the Roman God Janus, who is the god of beginning, gates, transitions, time, doorways, passages and endings.  How’s that for a job description? Janus is usually portrayed as having two faces: […]

Aerodynamic Forces

How NASA Research could end NASCAR Engine Failures Due to Trash on the Grille

2016-10-28 dr. diandra 1

For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the message was […]

Building Cars

NASCAR’s Laser Inspection Process: Confidence and Accuracy

2016-09-23 dr. diandra 4

There Will Be Rules… The last time I was at the R&D Center, I was given a copy of the official NASCAR rule book for 1948. It was about a quarter of a page. Now there’s […]

Digital Dashboard

Is Stricter Enforcement of Pit Road Speed Limits Making Pit Road Less Safe?

2016-09-02 dr. diandra 1

The Purpose of Pit Road Speed Limits NASCAR implemented pit road speeding rules in 1991. The year before, Mike Rich, a tire changer for Bill Elliott, had been pinned between Elliott’s car and the car of Ricky Rudd when […]