grip
Grip: How NASCAR Decides If There’s Enough
Without grip — aka ‘friction’ — there is no racing. But how do you know how much grip a racetrack has? The primary tool for tuning racing grip is the tire. Goodyear produces different tire […]
blog
Bristol Motor Speedway
How Power Steering Affects Lap Times
Brad Keselowski lost his power steering early in Stage 3 of the fall Bristol race. I wondered if we could quantify how much power steering affects lap times. Turns out we can. Below is a […]
Safety
How NASCAR Drivers Keep Cool
It’s critical for NASCAR drivers to keep their cool — mentally and physically. That’s not easy when the interior of the car can easily reach 120ºF to 130ºF. So how do NASCAR drivers keep their […]
Practice
Which Drivers Improve their Finishing Positions in Doubleheaders?
How has eliminating practices affected finishing positions in NASCAR races? Unfortunately, we can’t create a parallel, COVID-free universe as a control system to answer the question. However, COVID has forced NASCAR to run four weekends […]
Qualifying
Why NASCAR Quarantine Qualifying Had To Change
My return to the unique problems posed by quarantine qualifying is in part because Clint Bowyer tweeted that the pseudo-random draw was really messing him up and it wasn’t fair. I wanted to know if […]
Safety
Is Stockcar Racing the Safest Form of Motorsports?
None of NASCAR’s three national series have had a driver die in an on-track incident since the 2001 death of Dale Earnhardt, Sr. And that’s despite some pretty spectacular accidents. We all wondered if we […]
Qualifying
Does NASCAR Need Qualifying?
I’ve made the argument that NASCAR needs at least a little practice. But what about qualifying? Does it have a place in post-pandemic NASCAR? The Problem Racing with the coronavirus forced NASCAR to cancel everything […]
Graph of the Day
Indy Proved It: NASCAR Needs Practices
The coronavirus forced NASCAR to eliminate qualifying and practices. Some people think that should become a permanent change. Indianapolis showed why it shouldn’t. I mean, who expected The Big One to happen on Pit Road? […]
Lead
Ballast: Tungsten vs. Lead
NASCAR penalized a couple of teams recently for dropping tungsten ballast on the racetrack. Let’s revisit why those chunks of tungsten are there in the first place. Ballast is weight added to a racecar to […]
Racing
Does the Driver Who Leads the Most Laps Usually Win?
We all remember at least a couple of times when a driver led the most laps without winning the race. But how often does that actually happen? As always, thanks to racing-reference.info for providing such […]