Browne, Josh
Pit Road Speeding Explained
The black helicopters were out over Indy on Sunday, or so suggest some Juan Pablo (a.k.a. Juablo) fans. This happens every time someone leading a race (or contending for the lead) gets a pit road […]
Tracks
Edwards, Carl
Talladega Teardown: Roof Flaps and Catch Fences
“You have to understand that, like, for years, we have had wrecks like this every time we come to Talladega ever since the (restrictor) plate got here, and for years, it was celebrated. The media […]
Aerodynamics
Behind the Science of Speed
The Science of Speed video series is now up at www.science360.gov. We did a press conference at Texas Motor Speedway Friday April 3rd afternoon announcing the series. If you told me three years ago I’d […]
Engines
Blown Engines: A Consequence of the Testing Ban?
Blown engines were a factor in this week’s Las Vegas race, just as they were in last week’s California race. Let’s look at why this might be happening. […]
Dynos
Magnets and Dynomometers
I have never seen Robin Pemberton looking so disgusted as he did during an interview replayed on NASCAR Now Monday evening. (Well, maybe not since Daytona 2007.) NASCAR did a chassis dyno test after the […]
Goodyear
Goodyear’s Tire Solution
There’s a wonderful gadget called wordle that analyzes text and picks out the words that are used with greatest frequency. So I had it analyze the blog and this is what it came up with. […]
Aerodynamics
Why Inner Liners are Required on the Tires at Dover
Q: Inner liners are required at Dover, which is one-mile track. What is an inner liner and why is Dover the only one-mile track at which it is required? A: If you look at a […]
Safety
The Science of …Michael McDowell’s Qualifying Wreck
Last Friday in Dallas was beautiful. It started out cloudy, but cleared off and got warmer. By the time I finished a TV interview about 10:00 a.m., we had to dig out our sunglasses before […]
Brakes
Science to Watch For: Martinsville
I’ve had a number of requests to identify science people should look for at the track before the race weekend starts, so here are few things to watch for this weekend at Martinsville. Martinsville was […]
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
The Science of …Tires (Part I)
LetÂ’s start by pointing out that tire performance is a really, really complicated issue. There are a lot of variables involved. This post ended up getting way too long, so IÂ’m going to address the […]