Racing

Aerodynamic Forces

Aerodynamic Downforce: A Passing Fad?

2012-05-21 dr. diandra 5

The question of why it is so difficult for cars to pass each other at 1.5 mile and 2 mile tracks is getting more and more attention. Carl Edwards put it succinctly:

“I firmly believe, and NASCAR hates it when I say this, that we should not be racing with downforce, sideforce and all these aerodynamic devices. We do not need splitters on the race cars and giant spoilers. I have not been around long enough to say something definitely, but it is pretty common sense: if all the cars are very similar and all the drivers are within a tenth of a second of each other but are relying on clean air and downforce, then by definition if the guy in front of you is disturbing the air then your car is not going to be able to go as fast as it could in clean air.” […]

Edwards, Carl

Richmond Redux: Relative Velocity

2012-04-30 dr. diandra 0

NOTE: Some clarifications added 1:00 p.m. 4/30/12. Thanks to all the commenters, especially @nateryan! I think Dave Moody did a good job breaking things down. The situation is confounded because there were so many different […]

Richmond

Is More Data Always Better?

2012-04-29 dr. diandra 3

Saturday’s race in Richmond was a festival of miscues. Carl Edwards mistakenly thought he was leading, then he jumped the restart, although he wasn’t the one to lead the restart because he wasn’t the leader. One would think we have the data that could prevent incidents like this. We probably do. But do we want to use it? […]

Cautions

Cautions: A Historical Downward Trend Over the Last Six Years

2012-04-24 dr. diandra 4

Being the data geek that I am, I was really curious if the decreasing number of cautions was specific to this year. It’s not: Cautions have been decreasing since 2005,as the graph below shows. The squares are the cumulative number of cautions per 100 miles, obtained by adding up all the cautions in a season and dividing by the total number of miles in the races. (This is a more accurate number than total cautions, given rainouts, shortening races and different venues from year to year.) […]

Cautions

Are Cautions Really Going Down?

2012-04-18 dr. diandra 0

I honestly cannot help it – scientists are naturally skeptical. If you make an assertion, I will have to question you on what data you have that supports it. This is second nature to the people I work with, but I realize it is damned irritating to non-scientists (aka “normal”) people.

So when I started reading everywhere that “cautions were down 35%”, I had to go look into it. This is a preliminary post – more detailed analysis will follow as soon as I’ve read my students’ final projects and gotten comments back to them. […]

Electronic Fuel Injection

How close is NASCAR EFI to “Real” EFI?

2012-02-17 dr. diandra 10

As we turn on the (new) engines to start the season, the twitterverse is getting even more full of people debating the NASCAR EFI system. Is it like the EFI in production cars? Is it throttle body? Is it multiport? Here are the answers: […]

Busch, Kyle

Why Six Points is About Right for What Used to be a 25-Point Penalty

2011-06-15 dr. diandra 2

I was watching the movie A Clockwork Orange the other night.  There is a scene where Malcolm McDowell, having been “rehabilitated” and returned to society incapable of defending himself, is being beat up by an […]

Rules

Malarkey, indeed.

2010-10-04 dr. diandra 1

The whole RCR appeals process raised more questions than it answered. The RCR appeal is dead: Here’s the issue now. John Middlebrook, NASCAR’s chief appellate officer, will hear RCR’s (final) appeal tomorrow. He has a major advantage in that he can pretty much run the appeal however he wants. If I were in Mr. Middlebrook’s shoes, here’s what I’d do. […]

Inspection

Breaking News: A Scientific Interpretation of the Upholding of the 33-Car Penalities

2010-09-29 dr. diandra 21

Here’s the fast analysis of the statement from NASCAR upholding the penalties on the 33-car from New Hampshire. More will follow after proper digestion and reflection. This is an interpretation of the penalty upholding statement (as reported by Jeff Gluck) because that’s the first tweet I saw. The panel’s statements are in italics and my interpretation in non-italics. […]