Racing

Gen-6

Notes on Respect and Fines

2013-03-11 dr. diandra 7

A short note on Denny Hamlin’s comments on the Gen-6 car and subsequent fine.

I’ve talked to a lot of the people in the trenches involved in designing and creating the Gen-6 car. That includes people from manufacturers and teams. All of them have said that the development of the Gen-6 car is a major sea change for NASCAR. This is the most collaborative that NASCAR has been with introducing a new car in some time. Manufacturers and teams were consulted and they all feel that their opinions mattered and were taken into consideration. This was a very, very different process than the COT introduction, which was designed by NASCAR and plans delivered to teams. […]

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? […]

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. […]

Cautions

Cautions: A New Low for NASCAR

2012-11-21 dr. diandra 3

At the start of the season, the big news was that cautions were remarkably down from last year. As I showed, this isn’t a new trend – it’s a continuing trend since 2007. Since the season’s data are now complete, I thought it was time to revisit the data. […]

Richmond

Infographic: Does Kasey Kahne Get in the Chase?

2012-09-04 dr. diandra 3

I don’t know if they still make you do flowcharts in programming class, but I was trying to read through the Chase scenarios and I was getting really confused. So I did this. I think it’s much clearer now. To me, at least.
I bet I can get the other scenarios on here… Watch this space! […]

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 […]

Allmendinger, A.J.

Infographic: Energy Drink Label Comparison

2012-07-13 dr. diandra 1

With all the talk about phenyalanine being a potential problem in energy drinks, thought I’d point out that fuel in a bottle isn’t the only energy drink that includes it.