Auto Club Speedway of California
The Trouble with Pit Road Walls
Brandon Jones hit the edge of the pit road wall during Saturday’s XFINITY race, prompting a lot of people to ask if sand barrels are the best we can do in terms of safety. […]
Collisions
Building Cars
Safety vs. Speed: 2017 Changes to the Chassis
The Evolution of the Stock Car ADDITION: If you are more comfortable with Portuguese, check out this translation by Artur Weber and Adelina Domingos – and thanks to them for being interested enough in my […]
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 […]
Acceleration
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
Safety: It’s not just how fast you go – it’s how fast you stop.
One of the biggest concerns in motorsports wrecks is peak force – that’s the maximum force experienced by a driver in a collision. As the diagram to the right shows, the force you experience in […]