Rules

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. […]

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. […]

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. […]

Aerodynamic Forces

2015 Rules: Track Records I – The Example of Charlotte

2014-10-03 dr. diandra 1

@NASCARRealTime, @TheOrangeCone and @CircleTrackNerd had an interesting dialog when the 2015 rules were announced. They were debating whether the track records that are now standing are going to be essentially locked into history. The debate ended with an appeal to me and Goody’s Headache Powder. […]

Aerodynamic Forces

Dive! Dive! Dive Planes… on Stock Cars?

2014-08-22 dr. diandra 15

A persistent motorsports issue (and not only with stock cars) is the aerodynamic passing problem. You can’t pass without grip. Grip is a direct result of downforce. Downforce comes from two places: the weight of the car (mechanical grip) and the billions and billions of air molecules hitting the car (a.k.a aerogrip). […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]