Acceleration

NASCAR Crashes and G-Forces

While NASCAR keeps crash details confidential to protect drivers’ privacy, some drivers share the numbers from their crashes. But a single number doesn’t tell you everything about crash in the same way that finishing position doesn’t tell you the story of a driver’s entire race. […]

A drawing from U.S. Patent 7168880 showing an idea for a safety barrier for pit wall ends.
Auto Club Speedway of California
Building Cars
Collisions

NASCAR Drivers’ Risky Behavior and the Peltzman Effect

The introduction of automotive safety innovations is usually accompanied by concern about the side-effects of those innovations. For example, when seat belts were introduced, people worried that the belts would keep them from getting out […]

Aerodynamic Forces

Sprint Car Safety

NASCAR fans are used to having our drivers walk away from spectacular crashes.  Unfortunately, we are reminded all too often — like last night — that racing, regardless of all the technical improvements we’ve made, […]

Aerodynamic Forces

Brief Thoughts on the Nationwide Accident at Daytona

We’ve been painting the house. I was straining to hear EPSN’s commentary over the swoosh-swish of the paint roller as the race came to a close – but it was all too easy to hear the change the tone of Allen Bestwick’s voice. We heard it recently from Marty Reid in Vegas. I remember the first-hand feeling sitting about 50 yards from Michael McDowell’s wreck during qualifying at Texas. A track full of race fans – all quiet – is one of the worst sounds in all of sports. […]

Collisions