Racing

Auto Club Speedway of California

A Band Aid for NASCAR’s Tire Bleeding Problem

2015-04-03 dr. diandra 2

There are three things you don’t mess with in NASCAR: engines, fuel and tires.

Tuesday, NASCAR handed down a P5 penalty – the penultimate penalty on the books – to Ryan Newman’s 31 team. Crew Chief Luke Lambert was suspended six races, fined $125,000, and Newman and his owner Richard Childress were each docked 75 points. The tire specialist and team engineer were suspended for six races as well. RCR is appealing the penalty, but I wager they’ve got an uphill battle.

NASCAR’s made its stand loud and clear in the last few weeks. Tire bleeding will not be allowed. If you persist in trying, they’ll come down hard on you. […]

Energy

Do Tires Affect Gas Mileage?

2015-03-20 dr. diandra 0

When winning means a few hundredths of a second, nothing is too small to be ignored. I’ve talked a lot about energy and the importance of using it as efficiently as possible in racing. Gasoline provides a […]

Drivers

Age and the NASCAR Driver: Can They Still Compete?

2015-03-06 dr. diandra 10

Jeff Gordon’s decision to step away from full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup racing has resulted in a lot of discussion about aging drivers. We’re on the verge of a turnover as a number of drivers (Johnson, Stewart, […]

Asphalt

Are SAFER Barriers Everywhere the Solution?

2015-02-25 dr. diandra 2

TL;DR:  No. As the extent of Kyle Busch’s injury Saturday evening at Daytona became evident, Twitter erupted in angry calls for SAFER barriers to be put up on every wall at every track. An interesting division […]

a scatter plot showing no correlation between starting and finishing positions in the Daytona 500 from 2012-2014
Graphs and Charts

Does Daytona Qualifying Really Matter?

2015-02-20 dr. diandra 6

Okay, it obviously does if you’re one of the cars that fails to make the race. But beyond that- given the huge amount of attention that’s been given to the ’embarrassment’ that was this year’s […]

Lug Nuts

2015 Rules and Lug Nuts

2015-01-09 dr. diandra 1

Forty-three days till the Daytona 500. The shops are buzzing with activity as everyone adjusts to another new rules package. The engine folks are working overtime dealing with the changes there. The only thing that’s slowed down is planning for on-track independent testing, since that’s been eliminated this year. But more time in the wind tunnel, on the seven-post machine, at the computers. […]

Cautions

Did Drivers Drive Differently During the Chase? I: Lead Changes

2014-12-12 dr. diandra 5

The primary motivation for all the changes to the Chase format was to up the excitement factor – the “game seven moments” as NASCAR brass put it. While the fact of the matter is that […]

Aerodynamic Forces

2015 Rules Changes: Testing

2014-11-20 dr. diandra 4

One of the biggest changes NASCAR has instituted for the 2015 season is eliminating individual team testing at any tracks. In 2014, teams were limited to four tests and were not allowed to test at tracks that were included in the schedule. NASCAR may run some limited tests, but they won’t be having the week-long marathon that was Daytona Speedweeks. […]

Aerodynamic Forces

Skirting the Issue

2014-11-07 dr. diandra 3

Flared side skirts became an issue when social media started noticing them somewhere around Kansas. The fact that the most obvious example of this was on the 2 car and Brad Keselowski is rapidly taking over from Kyle Busch as most-love-to-hate driver in NASCAR may have brought the issue to the fore faster. […]

Statistics

Can Anyone Really Win at Talladega?

2014-10-17 dr. diandra 4

Every year at this time, we hear that Talladega is a wild card because “Anyone can win”. Which, of course, made me wonder — can anyone win? […]