Racing

Drivers

The Virtual Reality of Racing Simulators

2014-06-13 dr. diandra 3

You are hurtling down the frontstretch at Michigan, your speed approaching 215 mph. Your seat moves up and down as you hit the seams, but your focus is squarely on getting into Turn 1 losing as little speed as possible. You squeeze the brakes and feel yourself moving forward, only to realize that you’re still moving too quickly. As the car starts to head toward the wall, you panic and squeeze the brake even harder.
The car snaps loose and the next thing you feel… is an engineer’s hand on your shoulder. You turn around to see her barely suppressing a smile. […]

Auto Club Speedway of California

California: The Good, the Bumpy and the Frustrated

2014-03-27 dr. diandra 3

I know this isn’t a picture of California.  But it’s a picture out my window, which is why this is a sort of short post. There seems to be a clear division between the people […]

Andy Randolph

The Risks of Cooling Down

2014-03-14 dr. diandra 0

Engineering is a constant battle of risk versus reward. How much are you willing to challenge your equipment in order to gain speed? […]

Aerodynamic Forces

The Arguments for Slowing Down the Gen-6 Car

2013-12-15 dr. diandra 16

It’s got to be a little frustrating that there are less than 90 days left before the start of the 2014 season and the rules package for the car isn’t set.  Teams hope for a […]

Busch, Kyle

Can You Predict a Driver’s Success from their Rookie Year Stats?

2013-11-22 dr. diandra 4

Now that the season is over, it’s time to look through the statistics from the year.  One big story this year was Danica Patrick’s rookie season in Sprint Cup.  She didn’t set the world on […]

Concussion

NASCAR’s Concussion Policy

2013-11-01 dr. diandra 0

Concussions were big news in a week where no one actually got one. NASCAR announced a new policy on concussions :  Starting in 2014, all drivers will be required to have a baseline test at […]

Consipracies

Opinion: NASCAR’s Restart Problem – What Would Einstein Do?

2013-09-08 dr. diandra 9

Sigh. So instead of talking about a couple great races this week, we’re focusing on restarts.  Again.  Everyone, from pundits to drivers, is questioning  NASCAR’s decisions to not call penalties on the critical restarts of […]

Busch, Kyle

Do Drivers Slow Down When They Get Older?

2013-08-30 dr. diandra 10

NOTE: I’ve revisited this topic in a more-recent blog that has additional data. I’d encourage you to look there, as well There are a lot of things people say in NASCAR that have been said […]

Aerodynamic Forces

The Flap over Roof Flaps

2013-07-05 dr. diandra 5

Why Roof Flaps? Roof flaps (the invention of which I detail in my book The Physics of NASCAR) help keep cars on the ground.  This is necessary because of Bernoulli’s law, which says basically that: Faster-moving […]

DNFs

Toyota Engines: By The Numbers

2013-06-12 dr. diandra 2

There are somewhere in the vicinity of 840 parts in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Engine (at least the Chevy version and yes, I am taking someone’s word for this.  I did not have time to […]