Asphalt
Dover: Why Concrete Races Differently than Asphalt
One of the questions you’ll hear drivers and crew chiefs asked a lot this weekend at Dover is how the concrete track affects the racing. Here’s how: […]
Tracks
Richmond
Infographic: Does Kasey Kahne Get in the Chase?
I don’t know if they still make you do flowcharts in programming class, but I was trying to read through the Chase scenarios and I was getting really confused. So I did this. I think it’s much clearer now. To me, at least.
I bet I can get the other scenarios on here… Watch this space! […]
Engines
Why is Michigan so Hard on Engines?
Four Hendrick Motorsports engines failed at Michigan International Speedway . But Michigan is hard on engines. Let’s see why. […]
Pocono
Lightning Safety at Racetracks
A little late with this because I have been in New York City at a meeting. It was an important enough meeting that I missed the race on Sunday. I was sad to read Monday […]
Pocono
Pocono: Infographics
If you mouse over the triangle in the upper right-hand side of the Pocono Raceway website, you can see the track dimensions. Those numbers give you a pretty good idea why this track drives crew […]
Aerodynamic Forces
200-mph Laps at Michigan Are Not Like 200-mph Laps at Superspeedways
People worry that 200-mph laps at Michigan International Speedway could make cars airborne, as can happen at superspeedways. Should they worry? […]
Michigan International Speedway
Michigan International Speedway Pole Speeds
There’s been a huge increase in Michigan International Speedway pole speeds this year. Is it the biggest increase ever? […]
Michigan International Speedway
Michigan: Don’t Believe the Speeds
All the talk at Michigan about high speeds and the hoopla over passing the 200-mph barrier prompts me to offer this caveat: Take the speeds you hear with a grain of salt because the average lap speeds are estimates, not measurements. […]
Engines
Pocono: The Shifty Triangle
NASCAR engines like to run at about 8000-9500 rpm (revolutions per minute); however, the tires on the car rotate around 2400 rpm at 200 mph. The gearing in the transmission and the rear end gear reduce the rotational engine speed, with different gears providing different reductions. When you talk about the size of a gear, you’re actually talking about the relative sizes of a pair of gears. The gear on the left in the diagram has 20 teeth, while the gear on the right has 10 teeth, so this gear would be a 2:1, meaning that the smaller gear rotates twice every time the larger gear rotates once. […]
Bristol Motor Speedway
The Reason for Decreasing Cautions
This was the first year that most people noticed a decrease in the number of cautions, but (as I’ve pointed out), 2012 is merely the latest in a six-year trend of decreasing cautions. The same downward trend is evident in the Nationwide Series. This year is perhaps notable for it being so extreme.
The data clearly shows the trend: The question, of course, is why?